Man accuses bank of defrauding him N5m

Popoola

A man has accused First Bank Microfinance Limited of defrauding him money running to N5million.

The angry man, Mr. Adebayo Popoola, explained that the bank sold a property to him, knowing full well that it was used as collateral by one of its customers and that the date of expiration given to the customer on the property was not yet due.

Since the property, a bungalow, has become enveloped in crisis, Popoola had withdrawn from further transaction and possession of the property.  He had asked the bank to refund his N5 million, but the bank allegedly refused; rather it sued him, the police and the owner of the property to court for harrassement and intimidation.

Popoola believed that the bank’s game plan is to frustrate him and delay payment of his money.

Popoola said: “I bought a property, located at Goriola Street from an agent, Mr. Ibrahim. He took me round properties under his care and I finally settled for the one located at No. 3, Goriola Street. Ibrahim told me that First Bank Microfinance owned the property. The bank said the property was N10 million, but it was a rundown building. It was abandoned from the look of it. But we finally settled for N6.5 million. Ibrahim gave me an account number, which I paid the money into.

“Ibrahim and my lawyer said that I should pay N5million into the account and bring N1.5 million cash to Ibrahim. After the payment, they gave me a Survey Plan and Deed of Assignment between the former owner and the person who bought the property from the former owner.”

Popoola went home to celebrate, believing that the deal was stamped and sealed.

A month later, he went with his kid brother to inspect the building. He later left his brother to go and eat. He was still eating when he received a call a frantic call from his brother, explaining that a woman brought police to the site to arrest him for trespassing.

Popoola ran to Ajeromi Police Station, Ajegunle, where he met one Mrs. Doris Mukoro, who presented herself as the owner of the property, accusing Popoola of trespassing and damaging her property.

The case was transferred to Apapa Police Command, but Popoola who felt he had been defrauded, petitioned the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Ikoyi, for further investigation.

The case was still undergoing investigation, when the bank went to the court and got an order restraining the police from further investigation.

Before police stopped investigation, it had retrieved about N1.260 million for Popoola from the agent and lawyer who shared the commission on the sale of the property.

“I later got to understand that the owner of the property, used it as collateral, but the bank didn’t wait for the time of the collateral to elapse before it sold the property to me,” said Popoola.

He continued: “The bank sold to me in May, but the expiration date for the woman’s collateral was supposed to be August. Investigators told me that even after August, the bank needed to have given the woman two more months before taking action on the property.

“My lawyer told me that the bank was also supposed to publish in newspapers that it was selling, but it didn’t do that! All I want now is for the bank to give me my N5 million. I have incurred a lot of loss since the matter started.”

When our journalist visited the bank, it refused to say anything relating to the matter. Rather the bank’s staff, who spoke, refused to give their names. According to them, they couldn’t react to wild allegations leveled against the bank, stressing: “If a customer has a problem with us, let the customer come to us or seek redress in court.”

The SFU spokesperson, Mrs. Ngozi Isintume-Agu, confirming the story, alleged that the bank wrote a Letter of Consent by itself and gave to Mrs. Mukoro’s mother (the co-owner of the property), to sign and the woman had signed, unaware of what she was signing.

She added: “The collateral was supposed to expire September, but the bank sold the property before then. The bank has now sued police to court. The matter is now in court. Maybe when the matter is struck out, police will continue with its investigation.”

Stating her own side of the story, Mrs. Mukoro, a cold room operator, said that she borrowed N3.5 million in December 2012 and that she used to remit N30, 000 every day to the bank, until she travelled.

According to her, she paid from January to February, but defaulted towards February ending.

She said: “I travelled. When the bank insisted that I should continue paying every day, I went to a lawyer. He said I should look for developers. We went to the bank with the developer, but met a new manager.

“I asked for the statement of account, so that I could know what was left to remit, but they refused to attend to us. My lawyer later gave me letter to the branch office, at boundary, Ajegunle, which was my branch, but the staff there refused to collect the letter. This was happening in May, 2013.”

She said that it was on July, 3, that she discovered strangers traipsing round her property and alerted police. “The loan was supposed to expire on September 2013, but the bank sold the property in May. My mum didn’t sign any Letter of Consent! My mum can’t even read! I’ve asked her severally, but she said she didn’t sign anything. I believe the document was forged.”

In the suit filed by the bank against the Police, Mrs. Mukoro, her mother (Mrs. Alice) and Popoola, the bank demands compensatory general damage of N10 million for the unlawful violation of the bank’s staff fundamental rights. The Suit also wants no further arrest of the applicants pending the hearing and determination of the suit, stressing that the case was civil and not criminal.

According to the suit, on November, 12, 2012, Mrs. Doris Mukoro, requested for a loan facility of N3.5 million from the bank which was granted on December, 21.

Mrs. Mukoro mortgaged the property co-owned with her mother.

The suit further states that Mrs. Mukoro’s mother, Mrs. Alice, issued a Letter of Consent to the bank, consenting to Mrs. Mukoro’s use of the property as a security for her loan.

It further states: “Alice and Mukoro further issued a Power of Attorney in favour of the bank in respect of the security and Mukoro signed a Loan Agreement.”

According to the documents, Mukoro was supposed to repay the loan on weekly installments of N132, 000 for eight months, but she paid for three installments and stopped paying.

The document said that a letter was written to her, calling off the loan and informing her that it wanted to exercise the rights as contained in the Power of Attorney.

On April, 23, another letter of reminder was sent to her.

“That pursuant to the Power of Attorney donated to us, we disposed the security to one Mr. Adebayo Popoola…that the police at SFU are now forcing us to refund the sum of N3.5 million to Popoola or face a trumped up charge in a criminal court in matter that is totally civil,” states the suit.

In one of the bank’s document, it showed that Mrs. Mukoro and her mother are both illiterate and the business transaction between them and the bank was interpreted to them in Pidgin English by one Fakoya Dotun. Another document showed Alice, appending signature with a thumb print.

In the Loan Agreement document, it states: “Provided that upon default by the Borrower to repay her loan facility, the company shall be at liberty and without further notice to Borrower and/or the Guarantor(s) to fully complete the Borrower and/or the Guarantor(s) cheque(s) by filling in the current date and outstanding indebtedness of the Borrower and present same to the relevant Bank of the Borrower and/or Guarantor for payment of the outstanding indebtedness on the Borrower’s loan facility.”