Ofegobi Ofem Balinwo, a customer of Access Bank in Calabar, Cross River State, maintains a domiciliary account No: 0693951087 with the bank. Sometime in 2016, his account was inadvertently credited twice in a duplicated transaction.
Following this “system error” of the bank, Ofegobi was goaded into making refunds of the duplicated sum of $92,762.51, over a period of time. The entire refund was done on 12th August, 2016 leaving him with no liabilities.
While Ofegobi thought all was clear, something happened on September 2, 2016. Despite the refunds made, his account was debited with the sum of $14,380, completely emptying his account. Baffled and without the right answers in place, he contacted the bank seeking explanations. This contact yeilded nothing, prompting him to institute Suit No: HC/99/2017 at the High Court of Cross River State, questioning the bank’s actions.
Three years after he instituted the suit and the ensuing trial at the High Court in Calabar, presided over by the Hon. Justice Akon Ikpeme, judgment was delivered on the 10th day of June, 2020 in his favour.
The High court held as follows:
“… as at 2nd September, 2016, when the statement of account shows a withdrawal of the entire balance left when the Claimant had fully refunded the amount wrongfully paid to him, this court finds no justification for that in the absence of a court order and therefore reiterates that the withdrawal was not justified by law and therefore it was wrong and constitutes a breach of the Defendant’s duty to the Claimant.”
Continuing the court further held that;
“This court noted that DW1 on the 22nd of October, 2019, admitted under cross-examination that CW1 had fully paid back with the open market value of the dollar. It is based on the above analysis, this court finds and holds that the claimant has by preponderance of evidence proved that the Defendant breached her duty of care to him when she emptied his account of the balance therein as indicated in Exhibit 9 without a court order or authorization from him thereby depriving him of access to his said account”.
Following the judgment, Access Bank Plc appealed in Appeal No: CA/C/353/2020 between Access Bank Plc v Ofegobi Ofem Balinwo. On the 29th of April, 2025, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and held that the Respondent (Ofegobi) did not present his cheque for payment when he was free from encumbrance.
The appeal court further held that the debiting of $14,485.92 was a “reversal” without any clarity on what kind of reversal could occur in an account that was unencumbered at the time of the illegal debit.
After the judgment, Ofegobi has approached the bank to access his $14,485.92 but has still met his account on $0.000 balance.
The big question Access bank needs to answer now is, where is the $14,485.92 that was in the account of Ofegobi and which was debited on 2nd September, 2016 with the narration “Reversal”?”
Ofegobi told www.calitown.com that the money is his gratuity, earned from working with the World Bank as an Administrative and Finance Associate for 16 years.
Reacting to this unfortunate development, Benedict Okoi told www.calitown.com that, “?50,000 suddenly vanished from my Access bank account about three years ago. I battled with them for five days before the money was returned. A week later I transferred everything except ?45,000 from the account, with hopes it’ll keep yielding interest and growing. Today the same ?45,000 has been reduced to ?6,000, despite not making any withdrawals. Na only God go fit judge Access bank case.”
Paul Alobi Nyambi, a lawyer insisted that, “banks have gone rogue in Nigeria”, while Inyang John maintains that “Access and GTB are very funny banks, their internal control is damn porous.”
A senior staff in the Calabar branch of the bank who pleaded anonymity, informed us that the branch cannot comment on the matter, “only our headquarters can do that, please bear with me.”
