Death In the Bank: How It Happened

By Fola James

More facts have emerged over the death of a customer at the premises of a new generation bank in Port Harcourt, Rivers state on Monday. The unnamed customer was said to have died as he was trying to withdraw some money from his account to treat himself of an undisclosed ailment.

Some reports claimed that the customer died because of the delay he experienced while trying to withdraw money from his personal account. Sources told the magazine that the customer had already performed the transaction, drove out from the banking hall and was on his way home when the unfortunate incident happened.

An eyewitness to the incident, had earlier posted the picture of the late victim on a Facebook with account Uwaifo Oviawe, noting that the victim died out of frustration.

The witness said: “A customer banking with one of the new generation banks in Port Harcourt has died due to frustration and unfriendly treatment by the customer service attendants of the bank.

“The man who is a customer of the new generation bank just died now in front of the bank. He was refused access to his own money since Friday even when he came with his next of kin. He was asked to go to the court to get an affidavit knowing the court is not in session.

“The source stated further that the man following the task of getting an affidavit collapsed and died outside the bank. However, the drama started at the open bank premises when a young lady and two men came to the scene demanding that the bank opens the access door so they could deposit the man’s remains in the banking hall.

“The bank had shut operations based on the development and barred the panicking family members from accessing the hall. The young lady who was in tears mentioned that the victim was her father, adding that the man was sick and had come to the bank to enable his treatment.

She said: “He had come to the bank on Friday to withdraw money, but they said he should bring a next of kin and affidavit over an issue I don’t know. “When he came today they said he should go and bring court affidavit and the man told them that he is sick and the courts are not on, they refused. He died out of frustration.”
But the source who spoke with The Source narrated the story differently. According to him, the customer did not die at the bank’s premises, but was on his way home ”after he had been attended to when the sad event occurred. It is true that the customer was told by the customers’ representative that a third party cannot be allowed to cash a cheque on his behalf, that for that to happen he must obtain an affidavit.

“But the matter was later resolved and the transaction completed. The customer was later taken away in his car only for him to be driven back by the driver and one of his relations that he had died. That is what actually happened. Those claiming that he died in the premises of the bank are just peddling lies to discredit the commercial bank,” he said.

Meanwhile, sources from the new generation bank told the magazine that it has nothing to do with the death of the customer because “all we are trying to do is to ensure that the accounts of our customers are protected. We only ensured that the customer followed the rules as prescribed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and once that was done the transaction was carried out without further delay.”