Scores of customers of Polaris Bank in Osogbo, the state capital of Osun, on Monday lamented the ugly experience they had as men of Nigeria Police Force (NFP) closed all the branches of the commercial bank in the state capital following a court order.

Ayobami Sodiq, who visited the three branches ((Fagbewesa, Alekuwodo and Gbongan Road) of the bank in Osogbo on Monday one after the other, customers were seeing hanging around the areas of the branches as they were denied access into the bank. Only the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) were working.

The three branches of the bank within the metropolis did not open for business.

The ugly development left many of the customers stranded especially some retirees who were in the bank to access their account, most of them who doesn’t have a debit card expressed worry over the event while some others who wanted to send money to another branch outside the state capital were helpless.

One of the customers that said that they were locked up in the bank initially for three hours before being sent out without any opportunity to do any transaction.

While expressing his agony, he said, “As it is now, I am extremely stranded. I came from Offa, Kwara State with the hope of withdrawing money. I don’t have up to a litre of Petrol in my car and I don’t know how I am going to leave Osogbo at the moment because their ATM is not also dispensing”

Effort to get the reaction of the police officers who came to effect the order was unsuccessful.

However a senior staff of the bank outside the state, who under anonymity gave full insight into the issue.

He said, “On the 12th of July 2019, the Osun state High Court, Ikire judicial Division made an order absolute against the Bank in respect of the account of Gabriel Omeka Omeka (the customer). The money being claims be in the customer’s account against which the court made the garnishee order is a purported balance of $1.1m US Dollars. The judgment being enforced through the garnishee proceeding is not a judgment against the Bank as the Bank does not have any relationship with any of the primary parties in the matter. The customer whose account is being garnisheed is a co-garnishee in the matter and not a judgment debtor”

“The judgment debtor in the matter does not have any account with the bank. The purported balance in the account of the customer which the court attached in the garnishee proceeding and directed the bank to pay within 3 days arose when there was a cyber-attack on the bank’s system and some fraudsters hacked into the bank system and inflated balances of certain accounts of which the account in question is one”

“When the order nisi was served on the Bank, we disclosed to the court that the customer account was used to perpetrate fraud against the bank and this fraud led to the inflated balance of $1.1m which the Bank has reported to the Police and same is under investigation. We informed the court and exhibited documents that such balances do not exist as the customer never made such deposits with the Bank and that the balance in the customer’s account are not bad by any underlying transaction. Despite this, the Court went ahead and made the order absolute against the Bank. Immediately the order was made absolute against the bank, we filed a notice of appeal and application for an injunction against the order and same was served. But despite this, the court levied execution against the Bank today while our application is still pending”

While reacting to the issue, the Public Relations Officer of Osun State Police Command, Mrs. Folashade Odoro, said since it is a court order, it is the duty of the police to ensure that the order is enforced with it.