A septuagenarian, Sule Fabiyi, who resides in Osogbo, Osun State, has accused Abdulwahab Sani Shehu, a former staff of First Bank, of terminating a N10.5 million fixed deposit investment he once had with the bank and subsequently mismanaged the sum.
According to report by Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Fabiyi had last Friday said Shehu, who used to a staff of the bank before he was sacked, had been managing his account at its Osogbo branch since September 2019.
The report quoted the septuagenarian to have narrated his ordeal, recalling that on September 10, 2019, he decided to have a fixed deposit investment with the bank at its Osogbo branch.
In Fabiyi’s words:
“The amount I earmarked for the investment was N10.5 million.
“After this, the investment went on for years and I received interest on it whenever it was due.
“Everything went according to plan and, at the time, I had nothing to worry about.
“As a matter of fact, I always reinvested the N10.5 million anytime the investment reached its maturity stage.”
Fabiyi went on to tell FIJ how things took a devastating turn with the N10.5 million investment he had with the bank in July.
“On July 7, however, I shockingly received a N500,000 fund transfer from a personal account belonging to one Abdulwahab Sanni Shehu,” said Fabiyi.
“I immediately could not remember who the Shehu was, but after a while, I figured he was the First Bank business manager who once managed my account at its Osogbo branch.
“I knew something was not right as I had always received notifications of returns on my investment directly from the bank, and not from any individual.
“With this in mind, I immediately visited the bank’s branch in Osogbo to find out what was going on with my investment.
“It was while I was at the Osogbo branch that the branch manager conducted a search to ascertain the status of my investment.
“In the end, it was made known to me that Shehu had in fact terminated my investment since 2022.
“Yet, I received interest on the investment from First Bank till January 2025.
“This meant that Shehu had terminated my investment since 2022 and had diverted my N10.5 million into some sort of investment or activity I had no knowledge of.”
Regretting that his N10.5 million was still to be refunded to him, Fabiyi said he also heard that the bank has since terminated Shehu’s appointment.
Fabiyi, who described himself as a 72-year-old man, who depended on his money to survive, said his lawyers had sent many letters to the bank on the matter, but that the financial institution was still let him know how his money would be refunded.
He dismissed the suggestion that he had a personal relationship with Shehu, who he insisted “was the business manager of my account and that was all.”
According to the report, the bank was still to respond to an email sent to its customer care unit by FIJ last Friday to First Bank’s unit for a reaction to Fabiyi’s claim.
