By Dauda Musbau
Claim
UBA embroiled in N1.9 billion fraud Scandal
Verdict
Misleading!
Full Text
An online website allegedly claimed that 1.9 billion naira belonging to a Pension Fund Administrator was fraudulently moved from the treasury of the United Bank for Africa or UBA.
The blog claimed that UBA has one of the weakest security systems when it comes to the safety of customers’ funds in their custody.
“Investigations revealed that the money was moved out from the UBA Treasury account in five tranches between 25 March, 2020 to 5 June, 2020. The first four tranches of the fraudulent transaction were over N400 million each, while the last one, which took place in June, was N200million plus.
The over N1.9 billion was moved from the Pension Fund Administrator’s account (PFA), PAL Pensions Alliance.
It’s worthy of note that between 25 March and 5 June when these monies were moved from UBA coffers, the bank did not even notice until July ending. It was the IRT detectives that called UBA’s attention to the fraud. This is a testament to the bank’s weak and vulnerable security system,” part of the post reads.
The claimant claims that three UBA Treasury Staff, Mr. Osita Omeje, Dirisu Sunday and Nappy Ngbale Aiyegbusi were authorizers of the fraud.
It was due to the veracity of the claim that Kwara Express opted for verification to establish the truth.
Verification
Kwara Express made keywords search on Google to see if any reputable media outlet has reported it but found none.
However, in the course of our Investigation, we discovered a media report where the chairman of the United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu denied the allegation of N41bn fraud and demanded an apology from the accused.
We checked through the work history of Nappy Ngbale Aiyegbusi, one out of the three names mentioned by the blog to be UBA’s staff but we couldn’t find any information linking her to UBA.
Kwara Express further reached out to the UBA for reaction but we are yet to receive their response as at the time of writing this check.
Conclusion
Based on available information, there’s no evidence or report about N1.9 billion being moved from the Pension Fund Administrator’s account (PFA), PAL Pension Alliance by UBA.
