A Lagos High Court has ordered Diamond Bank to refund its customer, Ayodele Akindele, N3.2 million wrongfully withdrawn from his account.
The judgment, given by Justice Morenike Obadina, upheld the request of Akindele for an order compelling the bank to refund the money which was wrongfully withdrawn from his account.
“From the totality of the evidence led in this trial, I hold that the claimant established his claim and is entitled to judgement. I give him judgement sum of N3,200,000 wrongfully withdrawn from his account,” the judge ruled.
However, the court refused the claim for interest by the plaintiff on grounds that he did not provide evidence of the interest rate on savings account.
“There is nothing to show that it is 21 per cent. Indeed, the statement of account of the claimant tendered did not show that 21 per cent interest was being paid on the account. I hold that the claimant is not entitled to 21 per cent pre-judgment,” Obadina added.
Notwithstanding the refusal of the court on the claim for interest, she held, the claimant is entitled to 10 per cent statutory post judgment interest from the date of judgment until the judgment sum is liquidated.
The court awarded N250,000 for general damages, instead of N5 million demanded by the plaintiff.
It noted that before the suit was instituted, Akindele’s counsel wrote to the bank to investigate the wrongful withdrawal but the bank did not, adding that if the bank had sought the assistance of the police, the identity of the person who made the withdrawal would have been revealed.
Akindele had in his statement of claim averred that sometime in January 2010, he visited the branch of Diamond Bank in Gbagada, Lagos and obtained a statement which showed that an unauthorised withdrawal of N3.2 million had been made on his account.
On further enquiry, he was informed by the bank that the withdrawal was effected at the branch in Nnewi, Anambra State; whereas he had never been to Anambra State and does not use automated teller machine (ATM), he insisted.
The bank denied liability, contending that Akindele withdrew the N3.2 million personally by 4.47pm, after withdrawing N140,000 earlier in the morning of the same day at the branch in Ikorodu, Lagos.