Ibadan, July 9, 2025 — Opeoluwa Oduwole, a resident of Oyo State, has accused Wema Bank of negligence after N970,000 mysteriously vanished from his account shortly after he visited the bank's Mokola branch in Ibadan to reactivate the dormant account.
In a series of interviews with Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Oduwole said the incident occurred on March 11, moments after he left the banking premises. According to him, the account had previously been flagged as inactive despite holding a “substantial amount” of money.
“After lodging my complaint, the account was reactivated and I left the banking premises. Minutes later, I received a strange debit alert of N970,000. It threw me off balance and for many hours I was confused,” he told FIJ.
The stolen funds, according to a debit notification seen by FIJ, were transferred to one Emmanuel Yunusa, a customer of Sterling Bank. Oduwole said he immediately returned to the branch to report the suspicious transaction, but no meaningful action has been taken since March.
“Wema Bank has not taken any step to help me recover the money. No refund has been made. It was not as if I compromised my account. The theft was clearly from within the bank,” he alleged.
Oduwole said that five months later, Wema Bank has failed to offer an explanation or any resolution. He also raised suspicions about the two staff members who assisted him during the reactivation process, stating that they were inexplicably absent from the branch during his follow-up visit in late June.
“The two ladies who attended to me at the time were nowhere to be found. It’s odd that two employees from the same unit would be on leave at the same time,” he added.
When FIJ reached out to Wema Bank for a response, an official, Adeola Adekoya, said:
“Kindly request that the account holder contact us directly, as it is against our policy to disclose customer account details, complaints, or inquiries to a third party.”
However, Oduwole maintains that he has reached out to the bank repeatedly through official channels with no positive feedback or progress toward recovering his life savings.
“This is not just money. This is my hard-earned savings. Someone stole it under the bank’s watch and nothing has been done,” he said.
The case adds to a growing number of complaints involving suspicious transactions in Nigerian banks, with several victims telling similar stories of unauthorized debits, stalled investigations, and silence from banking institutions.
As the situation unfolds, Oduwole says he is determined to continue seeking justice and accountability.
“I won’t let this go. Wema Bank must be held accountable,” he said.
Wema Bank has yet to issue an official public statement on the matter.
