A Lagos-based lawyer Barrister Chris Ekemezie has scored a victory against United Bank for Africa (UBA) Limited at the Federal High Court in Lagos. He had been seeking to upturn the unauthorised withdrawals and debit interests charged on his account with the bank.
The court ordered UBA to immediately reverse the unauthorized withdrawals and also awarded the plaintiff with ₦500, 000 in damages.
Mr Ekemezie has gone to court to challenge the bank over illegal withdrawals from his debit Gold MasterCard ATM card issued by the bank’s Allen Avenue, Ikeja branch. The card gives users the ability to carry out transactions in the currency of any country.
He had claimed that on April 8, 2013 some unknown person(s) with or without the collusion of the bank, had carried out illegal transactions on his account after which he immediately notified the bank to block his account and reverse the transaction. The transactions were made in Canada where the plaintiff frequently uses his credit card to make purchases.
The bank had claimed that the transactions could only have been made by him or someone with access to his atm and/or pin number, an assertion which the lawyer vehemently denied, maintaining that the activities were carried out on his account without his knowledge or negligence.
While the lawyer insisted that his current account is in credit to the tune of ₦113,672. 27 the bank’s official records show that his account has a debit balance of ₦166,446.27 at January 2014. Moreover, said debit account continued to attract commercial interest.
Making her judgement after extensive deliberations, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the federal high Court in Lagos ordered UBA to reverse the debit interests charged against the lawyer’s account and also reverse his account to the pre-dispute figure of ₦113,672.27. She also awarded the plaintiff ₦500,000 in general damages.