Police in Lagos arrest, detain banker over refusal to return money mistakenly transferred to his account
The Lagos State Police Command has said that a banker, identified as Aderonmu Abayomi, was arrested before refunding the sum of N1.4 million mistakenly paid into his account.
Police spokesman, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, made this known while reacting to a post after being tagged by an X user on the incident.
“Hi Ben Hundeyin, a Mr. Aderohunmu is being detained at Gbagada police station, his crime according to what I was told is that he received a transfer that is now said to be erroneous,” Ogbeni Megadon whose X handle is @Da_Megadon wrote.
“He insisted that the official thing be done for recovery but has instead been arrested.
The normal thing is for the sender to through his bank inform the destination bank of the erroneous transfer, destination bank will then reach out to Aderonmu for consent to send back funds.
“Kindly use your good office to investigate this at Gbagada Police Station. Aderonmu is a Business Relationship Manager at Moniepoint, he had informed his supervisors of the inflow, he was waiting for the right thing to be done but has instead been detained. You need to intervene.”
After intervening and in an update on Sunday, Hundeyin confirmed that the sum of N1,400,000 was erroneously paid into Abayomi’s Moniepoint account.
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The police spokesman explained that the sender contacted him immediately and the banker replied that he had used N700,000 out of the money.
The sender then asked him to send what was left and talk about the balance later but Abayomi refused.
“The sender kept calling Abayomi for over three months. Mr Abayomi point blank refused to refund and refused any meetup. He deliberately remained evasive and elusive for three months,” Hundeyin said.
“You claim ‘he informed his superiors of the inflow and was waiting for the right thing to be done.’ Does that take three months?
“He was eventually arrested. In police custody, he claimed he thought the money was ransom payment. Yet, he did not make any report at any police station for three months.”
Hundeyin said after being locked up in police custody, Abayomi paid up the money and was immediately released on bail on Friday, 5 July 2024.
Proofreading, editing by Uji A. ILIYASU, Editor at Neptune Prime
