By Muhammed Shaeed
September 28th, 2024
Mr. Mashood Musa Olojoku is the owner of M-square stores, a venture that deals with making money transactions for people, registration of sim cards and NIN along Oba Mama road, Kuntu, Ilorin, Kwara state.
This is a business he has been doing for about a decade without hiccups until the afternoon of 8th of July, 2024, when he noticed a shocking transaction of Four hundred twenty thousand naira (#420,000) on his PalmPay app.
He was perplexed and baffled as he never initiated such a transaction. “It’s a few minutes past 1 pm when I logged in to my Palmpay bank app to confirm a transaction when I noticed the heart-rending transaction,” he narrated worriedly.
Olojoku after pondering on what could have been for a while, he clicked on the transaction details to ascertain where and how the transaction occurred. He tried to print the statement of the account but he got the rude shock of his life when the statement stated that he used the money to bet on ilobet, a betting hub in the bank app.
“I print out the statement of account. And it says I stake the money on ilobet. This is a thing I know nothing about. I’m not into bets. I don’t know how it works,” he said with tears in his eyes.
It was too acerbic for him to deal with. It felt like a lump struck on his throat and he cried out for help from his people. With tears plastering his face, he stretched the phone to whoever cared to give him a hint of what to do and where to solve the problem that is capable of destroying his livelihood.
As he was pacified by his people to take solace in how God wanted it, he bellowed more, saying the money was for a businesswoman in Oja Tuntun.
“I whimper like a toddler. I can’t stop the tears from rolling. It’s not my money. I collect it from a businesswoman in New Market, Oja Tuntun, who does not want to keep much cash with her and and it severs as a way to make money out of it.”
Olojoku, however, put in various efforts to report the issue.
He dusted off the flecks of dots that smeared his pants headed for the bank office. Olojoku walked sadly to Pamlpay’s head office in Offa Garage to complain.
It was nothing short of disappointment when the official he met on the seat told him there was nothing they could do to trace or rectify the issue except he complained to the Lagos branch.
“I went to their branch in Offa Garage, Ilorin. After telling them the issue, I was told to sit down while they helped me to work on it. An hour later, I was told that they couldn’t do anything. And I was directed to the Lagos branch,” he narrated.
He didn’t give up after the turn-down. He was determined to ensure that he got to the root of the matter. As he was about to leave the office, one Samuel in the office told him to report the issue to the NSCDC office and ask of Mr. Santos
“I scurried out of the office and joined a bus to Post Office. As we moved on, I felt I’d be helped at the place. But it dawned to be a lure to send me out of their office.”
“I trudged to the NSCDC office at Post Office in Ilorin. After pacing the office and asking for Mr. Santos for several minutes, I later met him. I explained everything to him again. Frankly, he told me there was nothing he could do about it, for it’s the place of the bank to help me. But I submitted the print-out bank statement to him.”
In a bid to use legal action against the bank, Olojoku reached out to his lawyer and explained the disturbing but dubious and cunning behavior of the bank to him.
‘I spoke to my lawyer about it. He was devastated as well. He knew it was a cheat from the bank end and he promised to swing into action the next to ensure the culprit is caught and justice is duly served.”
The medium spoke to the lawyer to get first-hand steps he took to let the bank know of its questionable and unfathomable transaction that was carried out on his client’s account.
‘I was at their office the next day the case was brought to me to submit a letter. But it was vehemently rejected. They came up with all sorts of excuses to ensure and frustrate me out of their office. It was the next day that I went there with the threat that the letter was collected from me. Yet nothing has been done about it by the bank.” The lawyer told Inside Kwara.
Customer Care’s reaction.
For three days, he kept calling the customer care, hoping they would pick up. Eventually, it was picked up the third day yet no solution was provided.
“It took three days before the customer care picked up. I was relieved a bit that the issue would be rectified. I told the attendant about it and he noted some things down. He told me to go back to the app and resend a new statement of account that carries the day’s date. But the particular transaction history didn’t open, the one that carried the N420,000 transaction that he had earlier saved wasn’t found again on the transaction statement this time.
“I told the attendant of this and he said there was no way to help me if I couldn’t provide the document. I sent the previous one but it was turned down.”
Mr. Olojoku is calling on well-meaning Nigerians to save him from the obvious cheat which Palmpay has subjected him to, which has seriously impacted his company negatively as he’s finding it difficult to progress with his business since the horrible N420, 000 transaction orchestrated by Palmpay Ltd.