BANK FRAUD: Court Orders First Bank to Refund N4.56m illegal Transfer

A Jos High Court on Thursday ordered the First Bank of Nigeria Plc to refund N4.56 million illegal transfers made on the account of one of its deceased customers.

The Acting Chief Judge of Plateau, Justice Pius Damulak, in his judgment, declared the transfer made by the bank on the personal account of late Bawa Yarima on his demise, as illegal and unprofessional.

He said that the mandate left by late Yarima on which the bank claimed to have acted could not remain valid after his death.

The judge declared that the transfer of N4.56 million out of his personal account, without authority of the Estate Administrators, was illegal.

The judge held that the applicant, who is the third son of the deceased, had proved his case against the bank and that the first son, Solomon and his other two siblings, had no right to order the release of the fund without the consent of the estate administrators.

Besides, he held that there was no proof that the deceased or his hotel owed the bank such an amount.

The judge held that the plaintiff has proved his case and ordered the return of the amount to the personal account of late Yarima under the estate administrators.

Damulak awarded an accumulated cost of N300,000 in favour of the plaintiff.

The bank, through its counsel, Chief Ofodile Okafor, SAN, claimed that Yarima owed it N4.56 million at his demise, being an investment on his hotel.

The bank said that the transfer of the amount from the deceased personal account was in settlement of the debt.

Okafor said that authority to transfer the fund was given by Solomon Yarima, the first son of the deceased, as the Managing Director of his hotel and estate.

He argued that the transfer was done based on an existing mandate left by the deceased, authorising the bank to transfer any amount from his personal account to that of the hotel, for purposes of settling any liability.

According to him, there is nothing wrong with the bank’s action.

However, third son of the deceased, Thomas who challenged the action, debunked the claim that his father owed the bank the alleged money.

In the case, argued by his counsel, Mr. Ibrahim Hamman, he denied knowledge of any liability owed the bank by the late father’s hotel nor a warrant for the transfer of fund from his personal account.

He said that the bank had no legal right to transfer the amount without the authority of the administrators.

According to him, there is no proof that ‘30 Hotel’ obtained any loan facility from the bank to the tune of N4.56 million.

He prayed the court to declare the claim as false and the action of the bank unprofessional.

Hamman said that the mandate alluded to by the bank was valid only when late Yarima was alive.

NAN reports that the deceased had four sons, Solomon, Bulus, Thomas and Joshua and left behind a hotel and two First Bank accounts.

After Bawa Yarima died on 10 September 1996, First Bank in June 1997, acting on an alleged mandate by the deceased, transferred the amount out of one of his accounts to service an alleged debt owed by the hotel.