Posted by By Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye on
Is it a coincidence that somebody would impersonate another person, presenting, a driver's licence in that person's name and collecting his due?
Is it a coincidence that somebody would impersonate another person, presenting, a driver's licence in that person's name and collecting his due?
This is the question that is agitating the minds of police officers, one Mr. Chuks Murray Okoye and officials of a bank following a Western Union Money Transfer transaction, which has become a subject of contention. But the man, whose money was taken by an impersonator is pointing fingers at bank officials.
Mr. Chuks Murray Okoye got a phone call from his wife living in the United States informing him that $2,800 had been sent to him through the Western Union Money Transfer scheme. But when the man went to claim the money at First Bank, Oba Akran branch, he was told that somebody who posed as him had collected the bucks same day. But the suspect's photograph, a fake address, name of person he was impersonating and a forged signature stand out on the commercial driver's licence marked GCE 2076BA7, issued on January 30, 2005, which he presented.
On how his anguish started, Okoye told Daily Sun that his wife, Evelyn Brown, had sent him $2,800 through the Western Union, from the United States of America. He said the woman called him by 5 a.m on May 16 telling him that she had sent the money. Thereafter, Okoye went to the Oba Akran branch of First Bank to claim the money.
He said: "Normally, I don't use First Bank, but my sister gave me a cheque of N150,000 to cash. I was preparing to go to the bank for my sister's money when my wife called to tell me about the money she sent."
"I went to two branches at Ikeja that morning, but they could not give me N150,000. They said they did not have that amount of money and advised me to go to Oba-Akran.
"On getting there, they said they could not pay me the money because the cheque was not mine. I called my sister to come and collect her money herself because they refused to pay me.
"Immediately my sister got to the bank around 9am, I decided to kill two birds with one stone by collecting the money my wife had sent. I approached a lady at the Western Union Department, who gave me a form to fill, which I did."
The real drama, he said, began when the official said she would not accept Okoye's driver's licence as a proof of identity.
"I have been using the licence since 2002", he said. "But the lady said she would only pay me if I had another proof of identity after holding my licence for about 30 minutes. Then, I produced my international passport which had visas on it. She later took me into a small room along the passage where I waited for another 40 minutes.
"The official came back to tell me that somebody else had collected my money, that morning. I lost my cool. The bank manager came out when I was shouting, but he was non-challant about my predicament."
Okoye told Daily Sun that he was asked to forget the money when he reported at the First Bank headquarters in Lagos.
But denying that he was unconcerned about Okoye's plight, the bank manager at First Bank, Oba Akran told Daily Sun: "I came out when he was asked to call his sister to collect the money. When he was creating a scene over the money his wife sent him, I told him that he should ask his wife to sort it out with the Western Union in America. It is the sender that can lodge a complaint and not the receiver."
Okoye said he called his wife, who lodged a complaint, adding: "Western Union International then told her that somebody else had collected the money at an Ikeja branch. They couldn't immediately trace which of the banks at Ikeja, by 10.23 a.m. And I was in the Oba-Akran branch till 11 a.m. I had not collected the money. It was only my wife, the bank officials and I that know about the money. So, how come somebody else collected my money when I was waiting for it?"
Okoye wrote a petition to the Police Commander at Area "F", Ikeja, alleging that the Oba-Akran branch of First Bank stole his money. He was given a team of policemen who went to the branch, and the bank manager directed them to the headquarters.
Daily Sun was at the headquarters of First Bank and the Chief Security Officer (CSO), Mr. Kehinde Uanreroro, said that another Murray Okoye had collected the money at the Ogba branch that morning.
He said: "At exactly 10.25am, the Ogba branch paid a man who identified himself as Murray Okoye. The man identified himself with his driver's licence."
Uanreroro ruled out foul play on the part of the bank, saying "Even if any of our officials had leaked the information that morning, is it possible for somebody to obtain driver's licence in another man's name between 5 a.m when the money was sent and 10.23 am when the money was received? If we make any mistake, we would be fined by Western Union International and Western Union would pay the money back to the sender."
Okoye however, said that he was not satisfied with the explanations of the bank's CSO, stressing that he was impersonated.
Daily Sun recently reported a similar fraud in which the victim, Mrs. Cecilia Duru was duped of $1000 Euros.
Commenting on the numerous allegations of Western Union fraud against banks, a senior anti-fraud police officer lamented that the allegations were on the rise.
She said: "I get so many petitions against banks concerning Western Union transactions. Just last week, another man complained that a bank could not pay him his money. The bank however, told me that it was a young boy who had tracked down the information on the internet that collected the man's money. Why ask people to fill forms when you know that their identity cards are not acceptable? Once those forms are filled and you don't collect your money, then you had better kiss it goodbye."