How I lost N300K at Zenith Bank ATM @ Ajala Bus Stop

A Lagosian has narrated how fraudsters cleaned out her account after using an ATM machine at Zenith Bank, Ijaye Ojokoro branch by Ajala Bus Stop on Lagos- Abeokuta Expressway, just before Ijaye and Alagbado bus stops.

According to her she was returning from a church vigil on Saturday, October 13, when she decided to get some cash at the ATM shortly after 5:00am.

Her account: “All I wanted was N5000 to enable me buy some food for the weekend. There was one other gentleman behind me, pretending to be waiting to use the machine after me. I inserted my Skye bank card, input my pin and amount desired. The machine did not dispense any cash and refused to release my card. I waited.

“One particular security man then kept harassing me to leave the premises since the thing did not give me money. I protested that it was still holding my card. He said there was nothing I could do until Monday. I stayed put.

“The security guy was going up and down complaining loudly that I was hanging around the bank with my brother. Then he said, ‘Madam, you need to leave this place’. I confronted him and we altercated for a bit, during which time he insisted that the machine often behaved like that and that the card would be retrieved on Monday by Zenith officials. Then, I left with my brother and went to bed.

“By the time I woke up around 8am, they had wiped out my account. They started withdrawing from 5:30 am which means, they just waited for me to go before retrieving the card. They withdrew cash from that same ATM and took it to other ATMs to withdraw cash till they cleaned out about N300k. I’m struggling alone and have no idea where my next meal will come from.

“When I rushed to Zenith Bank, Ajala Bus Stop, another security man had resumed shift. While I was making noise, people came around, saying things like, ‘Not again!’ It was the sympathisers that made me realise that it was a frequent occurrence at that branch of Zenith Bank. One woman said she had lost count of men and women rushing to the ATM to make scenes, crying and rolling on the floor mostly on weekends. The other people I shared my experience with at home blamed me for going there, saying they stopped using the branch’s ATM long ago because of stories of robbery and fraud they hear about the place.

“I plan to make their head office aware of the bad reputation this branch is giving Zenith bank around Ijaye/ Alagbado Axis. They need to probe the place. I suspect collusion between that security man and the guy hanging around as a customer when I was there,” she said.

There must be a new trick being employed. In the past, once a card failed to come out, it could only be retrieved from the back end by bank officials.

It is curious how the fraudsters were able to retrieve a card that failed to come out after a failed transaction.

Experts will need to look into that. Meanwhile, ATM users need to be more careful with this development.

RMD is my Oga, says KOK

KOK and RMD on stage

The duo of Kanayo O. Kanayo gained more admiration in the sight of their fans when they openly paid homage to veteran thespian and Nollywood ‘darling’ RMD at the Port Harcourt edition of the Globacom Mega Comedy Show, Glo Laffta Fest.

The high profile event was in full swing when the show anchors, delectable Juliet Ibrahim and Ebube Nwagbo called on RMD to present Glo goody bags to the winners of a dance competition.

Before the presentation, they wanted RMD to dance and give them the ‘Obama Walk’, a recreation of the famous regal stride and convivial mannerism of former US President Barack Obama. RMD assured them he would please them in due course, but he would first like to go ahead with the task of presenting the winners with their prizes.

However, upon their insistence, RMD delivered a perfect recreation of Obama Walk, attracting applause from the audience. Juliet wanted more, and when she wasn’t getting it, she called on KOK to come on stage to ‘show RMD how it’s done’.

KOK climbed the stage, collected the mike and said: “How can a child teach his father how to go to school?” attracting laughter and wild applause from the audience.

Juliet won’t back down. She turned to Victor, who jumped up and theatrically walked up the stage as if he was eager to do Juliet’s bidding.

But on stage, he also told Juliet RMD was a distinguished pioneer in whose footsteps he and many others were following. He would also not do the Obama Walk. He also received wild applause from the audience for his decision and humble disposition.

The two mega stars openly paid homage to RMD, and made to return to their seats, but RMD insisted they should join him to present the prizes.

All three Nollywood greats leave the stage with their fans hailing them loudly. Old parade Ground, Abuja is the next stop of the show on April 23, 2017. 

Subscribers of the network who wish to attend are to text 'LOL ABUJA' to 240 for invites. 

Chaos on the Long Bridge

It was about 7:30pm. The orderly queues of vehicles moving towards Magboro stopped for not more than 5 minutes on the Long Bridge inside the demarcation created by Julius Berger on Thursday. We were still wondering whether a car broke down again when the evil boys sprang out from nowhere.

They started with a commercial bus, stabbed the driver in the rib and yanked off a woman’s hand bag. The woman reportedly slumped probably out of shock. People shouted ‘won ti pa o’. Motorists scrambled out of their vehicles and fled in various directions. A boy of probably 7 years stood by their family car, shouting to his fleeing mother ‘I cannot leave my daddy’. His father probably couldn’t run or didn’t want to run. I’m not sure which.

I made frantic calls for help to the police and to someone who I believed had their special password. I was assured they would be there shortly. But I, like the rest of the teriffied people on the bridge knew that the job of keeping ourselves from being killed or hurt was exclusively ours in the interim.

With no help in sight, some motorists who had apparently been experiencing such on the road came out with cutlasses, axes, and other hideous weapons etc. Sheer terror was unleashed. No one was sure who the robber was and who the vigilantes were. Utter bedlam in pitch darkness. The Long Bridge falls under Ogun State which, quite frankly has no wish to be like Lagos when it grows up

Somehow, the sight of some motorists emerging with crude assault implements proved intimidating for the robbers. They cut short their operation and jumped into the bush with their small loot. People rushed back to reclaim their vehicles. A woman was heard shrieking: ‘Omo mi da?’ (Where’s my child?). Apparently, mother and child had fled in opposite directions when chaos descended.

It’s not the first time. It will still probably happen tonight and tomorrow night and the night after that, to different sets of terrified citizens.

For how long will this continue? Should it get to a stage that people will begin to get illegal guns to protect themselves on the Long Bridge before the authorities will take action?

BuyNigeria and value for money

It’s okay to campaign for made in Nigeria goods and services. But how about campaigning for excellence in our local businesses? How about campaigning for our local businesses to imbibe the wining practices of the businesses whose goods and services we import?


There are Nigerians who would love to fly Arik outside Nigeria if only to save cost, but grudgingly go for the costlier but more predictable alternatives. 

When you hear stories of outbound passengers being stranded at MMA for days without compensation, it’s a good bet to think Arik. In April last year, Arik’s flight to New York was delayed for days with no arrangements made for accommodation for the hapless passengers. Some told the media they were not sure their jobs would still be waiting for them in the US after days of absence. 

The airline simply carried on its business as if nothing happened until the passengers marched to the tarmac to block an Accra-bound flight. How much sermon on the mountain will make those victims go back to this airline?

How about formulating and implementing policies that help our businesses to embrace excellence? Can we campaign for a better business environment so that the products of our local businesses will be competitive? Can we campaign to abolish predatory taxation by three distinct layers of government?

Can we campaign to rid our cities of rent-seeking behavior from all manner of agencies, host communities, area boys and so on? Local businesses are buffeted by so many challenges that they are continually tempted to compromise quality in order to make decent profit from their labour. What are we doing to make it better for our local manufacturers?


‘Buy Nigeria’ is a good campaign. But let’s first sell them excellence. Excellence attracts patronage. You don’t need to preach or invoke sentiments.
I’m a citizen. I just want to make common sense.
‪#‎BuyNigeria ‪#‎BuyExcellence

London City Airport isn’t duty-free shopping compliant

Folks, if you want tax refund for your shopping in London, don’t fly out through London City Airport. 

The airport has no facility to process your tax refund. All they have is a box where you are expected to dump your duty-free shopping forms. 

If you have already booked for your flight, then go through the trouble of processing the refund at the appropriate offices in London ahead of your flight. Let the customs put their stamp and then you can dump in the box provided at London City Airport. Perhaps, they will get back to you with your refund.

Otherwise, kiss your refund goodbye.

Na wa for my countrymen o!

Why is it that it is your countrymen that tries to rip you off at every opportunity they get? Our last holiday in London went without any incident except when we transacted business with our own countrymen.

With other nationals, you would be sold stuff and be given receipt where they had the facility without you having to ask. Sometimes, when you were frustrated with the numerous coins in your wallet, you just dumped them on the table and asked the shop owner or sales clerk to pick the correct value of money for the stuff you bought. They would just do that, push the balance towards you and proceed to show you and explain what they took out of the lot.

On the contrary, our experience with a Nigerian cuisine restaurant, Tasty African, Maryland, Stratford, was that there was always a scheme to nick one or two pounds off you. The same items were sold at different prices every time we visited. We discovered this and started insisting on them giving us receipts for our purchases and a couple of times, the sales girl would feign forgetfulness.

If they had told you some prices for some items when you were picking stuff, once you tell them you wanted receipt, they started giving you different prices for the same items.

Sometimes when you remembered how much they sold something the previous day and ask why the difference, the sales girl would tell you, how, that must have been hard chicken. ‘This one is soft chicken!’

We found their food much better than the other restaurants we had used and our schedule was to tight that we couldn’t look for new restaurants. So, unfortunately, we had to keep going back.

The owner of that business needs to pay attention to his sales staff in that outlet particularly.