How Man’s Bank Account Was Emptied with ‘Death Certificate’ While Away in Dubai

• A Nigerian man who was repatriated from Dubai said a fraudster emptied his bank account in Nigeria
• According to him, he lost about N1.6 million after leaving his old phone number at home and travelling to Dubai
• Umoru said he is distraught following the bank’s reluctance to help him recover his lost funds

A man cried out after returning from Dubai to see that his years of labour had gone for nothing.

Mohammed Umoru was one of the recently repatriated Nigerians from Dubai. But he has returned to an empty bank account and a pregnant wife.

A former student-turned destitute

Umoru said he opened the account in one of the branches of a new generation bank in Lagos before travelling to Dubai.

He travelled while studying Engineering at the University of Lagos.

He worked as a contract construction worker in the UAE and faced hardship before his eventual deportation.

He said:

“I was a student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, then continued at the University of Lagos. I studied Engineering before travelling out in 2016 to Dubai, then returned in 2022.

“I finished my contract there before being repatriated. I had come before 2022. The company had issues then I left the company for another one where I worked for another two years. While working, I sought another visa, but it was not granted, and the government had to bring us back home.

According to him, those without employment cannot open a bank account, saying that the company will shoulder that responsibility and that if they leave, the account would be shut down by the same company.

Life in Dubai

He said if the company closes its bank account, the recipient will have to provide an alternative account where funds in the Dubai account could be transferred.

The Dubai returnee said his ordeal began in 2017. He checked his email to see that there had been transactions in his bank account back home.

He said the person using the account had bought airtime worth N50,000 via his lost number. He said he messaged the bank to shut down the account and asked if he could use his foreign number.

Umoru stated that he could not conclude the process of obtaining a new phone number because of his status in Dubai. He did not have an employment visa.

Upon visiting Nigeria, he asked the bank to restrict the account and deactivate the phone number.

Umoru said:

“When I returned to Nigeria, I went to the bank and asked them to open the restriction placed on the account. I explained to them that the number had been stolen and should deactivate the number from my account. I didn’t put my foreign number and since I was not in Nigeria I didn’t have a Nigerian number to replace the number. I wrote a letter to them that all transactions should be through my email.”.

When he returned to Dubai, he lodged an additional 5,000 Dirham and almost immediately, the person began another transaction on the account.

This time, he got back to the bank through a video call with the bank’s representatives to authenticate his identity.

He was told that he had been declared dead and that someone claiming to be his next of kin had a death certificate to empty the account containing N1.6 million.

“My next of kin to the account was my younger brother. My brother should have the right to the account if I were dead.

“I obtained my statement of account. I was not married when I opened this account, so my next of kin was not my wife. I found out that the person obtained my death certificate from a court in Jigawa State,” he stated.

When contacted, the bank representative said they were working on the issue but said they could not hassle him to expedite action on the case.

Zenith Bank customer narrates ordeal after losing N6 million in 15 minutes; bank reverses money after bashing

TopLatestNews reported that a Twitter user with the Twitter handle @Fashionjuel1 has narrated how her entire life savings was wiped off in 15 minutes from her Zenith Bank account.

The lady, who described herself as a healthcare enthusiast, said that on Friday, October 21, 2022, she had woken up at about 1 am join a church programme when she discovered that all her life savings and everything she had worked for all her life savings totalling N6 million disappeared without a trace in 15 minutes.

According to her, it was to the porosity and negligence of the bank.

Source: TopLatestNews