By Chibuzor Alli
A Lagos bank customer says N4.6m was transferred from his Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) account without his authorisation and that he received no SMS alert at the time of the transaction.
Onifade Isaac, a warehouse manager who lives in Alimosho, Lagos, said the money was transferred through the GTB mobile app to a Pocket App account bearing the name Zahara’u Iliyasu on 22 August 2026.
“On the 22nd of August 2026 at 11:49 am, the sum of N4.6m was fraudulently moved out of my account through the GTB Mobile App,” he said.
“I did not know of this transaction until evening when I needed to withdraw a small amount of money to settle a family need, and I was told I had insufficient balance,” he added.
Mr Isaac said he discovered the transfer after checking his account and found that no SMS notification had been sent to him.
“I wasn’t sent any SMS alert for that transaction. Immediately after I noticed, I called GTBank customer service, being a weekend, to notify them,” he stated.
According to him, the bank acknowledged the complaint and instructed him to have his account and the recipient’s account blocked. He said a “Do Not Debit” instruction was also placed on the receiving account.
“It was acknowledged with instructions to block my account as well as the recipient account, and place a Do Not Debit on the recipient account,” he said.
However, Mr Isaac said he was later informed that the money had already been withdrawn from the receiving account.
“I went straight to my bank to ask them if they had blocked the account and the recipient account, which they said yes, it has been done. After some days, I was told that the funds had been utilised by the recipient,” he added.
He provided The PUNCH with documents relating to the case, including an affidavit sworn at the Chief Magistrate Court of Lagos State, Yaba Magisterial District, on 26 August.
In the affidavit, Mr Isaac alleged that Guaranty Trust Bank “completely failed to send me an implied/mandatory One Time Password to authorise this mobile app login/transfer, nor did I receive any SMS transaction alert despite my phone network being fully active and in my possession.”
He also sought “an immediate reversal and full restitution” of the money.
A police extract from the Nigeria Police Force crime diary, dated 27 August, records Mr Isaac’s complaint and his allegation that he did not receive an OTP or SMS transaction alert.
An email sent to him by GTB’s E-Fraud, Analytics and e-Channel Security Group on 22 August, the day of the reported transaction, indicated that the bank had taken action on his account.
“Please be informed that your account has been blocked to prevent unauthorised access to your account,” the bank’s representative, Hannah Oguntade, wrote.
“The debit has been escalated to the receiving bank,” she added.
A bank statement supplied by Mr Isaac, covering 1 to 24 August, records an outward transfer of N4.6m on 22 August to “Pckapp – Zahara’u Iliyasu”.
The statement shows an opening balance of N4,395,275.11 and a closing balance of N10,446.86 after the transaction.
The figures indicate that the transfer accounted for almost the entire balance in the account.
The Pressmen contacted GTBank for a response to the allegations but had not received one at the time of publication.
The case raises questions about the effectiveness of fraud-response measures in mobile banking, particularly the speed with which disputed transactions can be stopped or recovered after funds have been transferred to another financial platform.
It also raises questions about the implementation of “Do Not Debit” instructions when money has moved between different financial institutions or payment platforms.
Nigeria’s growing reliance on mobile and digital banking has increased the importance of transaction alerts and rapid responses to suspected fraudulent transfers.
Mr Isaac’s case also highlights the difficulty customers may face in recovering funds after an unauthorised transaction has been completed.
The customer said he remains uncertain about the outcome of his complaint despite submitting the affidavit and police report to the bank.
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