A Sterling Bank branch in Iwo, Osun State, has told Saheed Abayomi Sanni, its customer, that his missing N724,570 was remitted to a Union Bank account, an account he has no business with.
Sanni is now counting the days before instituting a court action to retrieve his business money from the bank.
In a May 2 demand letter written by Tawfiq Tewogbade, Sanni’s lawyer the customer explained that he was a buyer and supplier of cashew nuts and cocoa beans with a business place in Iwo.
On April 25, a customer by the name of Azeez Taiwo Adelani, whose place of business was also in Iwo, bought cashew nuts from Sanni worth N724,570 and made the payment through his Zenith Bank account.
Sanni received a credit alert from Sterling via SMS, but the value was not reflected in his balance on his bank app.
“To our client’s utter dismay, the sum of Seven Hundred and Twenty-Four Thousand, Five Hundred and Seventy Naira (N724,570.00) was unilaterally and illegally removed/withdrawn/debited from his account domiciled with your bank on the 29th day of April 2025,” Tewogbade, of A+ Legal Practitioners, wrote to Sterling.
“Less than four days after and upon immediate complaint, the only explanation given to him was that the money had been remitted by your bank to one Union Bank account, which our client did not instruct the bank to do and without any recourse or notice whatsoever to our client in flagrant violation of duty of care your bank owes our client.”
The remittance of Sanni’s money to an account he had no association with and gave no instruction to the bank to send his money to, Tewogbade said, was an infringement of his fundamental rights and the bank was liable.
The bank was given a 48-hour ultimatum to reverse the said transaction.
Mujeeb Tadese, a litigation secretary at the law office, told FIJ that Sanni’s customer who paid the money did not make any adverse claim to his bank which might have triggered Sterling Bank to take such an action.
“Adelani had lodged a complaint to his bank and he was told that the matter was not under their control because the money was not reversed to his account,” Tadese said on Sunday.
“His [Adelani] bank then advised that he could write to the Central Bank of Nigeria for possible intervention. But even if he writes to the CBN, I doubt if it could resolve the problem because he is not the owner of the Union Bank account that Sterling sent the money to.
“When we checked our client’s statement of account, we saw the value of the negative transaction but it did not show the destination bank and the receiving account number. But the bank had said the money was sent to a Union Bank account.”
“Take further notice that we shall not hesitate to explore all options within the bounds of the law in respect of the illegal deduction of our client’s money in event of your refusal to honour our demand as this letter also serves as a pre-action notice. A word is enough for the wise!” the lawyer concluded.
Responding to the letter on the same day, the bank’s southwest legal team headed by Itopa Yakubu, regional legal support officer, and David Otunla, regional legal coordinator, promised to provide feedback soon.
“Further to the referenced letter, please be informed that we have begun looking into your request and we shall communicate our position soonest,” the bank’s response, signed by the Yakubu and Otunla, read in part.
The 48-hour ultimatum elapsed but the bank neither provided a detailed response nor returned the money at press time.
