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Claim: UBA embroiled in N1.9 billion fraud Scandal
Verdict: Insufficient Evidence. While there are reports about fraud allegations with UBA’s Chairman, Tony Elumelu, which he later denied and demanded an apology, there’s no evidence that UBA fraudulently moved N1.9 billion belonging to the Pension Fund Administrator.
Full Text
An online website, holisticinfo.com, claimed that 1.9 billion Naira belonging to a Pension Fund Administrator was fraudulently moved from the treasury of the United Bank for Africa (UBA).
The blog claimed that UBA has one of the weakest security systems in terms of the safety of customers’ funds in their custody.
“Investigations revealed that the money was moved out from the UBA Treasury account in five tranches between March 25, 2020 to 5 June 5, 2020. The first four tranches of the fraudulent transaction were over N400 million each, while the last one, which took place in June, was N200 million plus.
The over N1.9 billion was moved from the Pension Fund Administrator’s account (PFA), PAL Pensions Alliance. It’s worthy of note that between March 25 and June 5, when these monies were moved from UBA coffers, the bank did not even notice until July ended. It was the IRT detectives who called UBA’s attention to the fraud. This is a testament to the bank’s weak and vulnerable security system,” part of the post reads.
The claimant asserts that three UBA Treasury Staff members, Osita Omeje, Dirisu Sunday, and Nappy Aiyegbusi, authorised the fraud.
Due to the claim’s veracity, DUBAWA opted for verification to establish the truth.
Verification
DUBAWA conducted a keyword search on Google to see if any reputable media outlet had reported it but found none.
However, in the course of our Investigation, we discovered a media report where the chairman of UBA, Tony Elumelu, denied the allegation of N41bn fraud and demanded an apology from the accused.
We checked through the work history of Nappy Ngbale Aiyegbusi, one out of the three names mentioned by the blog to be UBA’s staff but we couldn’t find any information linking her to UBA.
DUBAWA further reached out to the UBA for a reaction but we are yet to receive their response.
Conclusion
Based on available information, there’s no evidence that N1.9 billion was fraudulently moved from the Pension Fund Administrator’s account (PFA), PAL Pension Alliance by UBA.
