Ebonyi Rural Farmers Expose Anchor Borrowers Fraud (Photos)

… Urges govt’s, stakeholders stakeholders interventions in CBN’s blacklisting of BVNs

When in October 2021, some leaders of an Association, Maize Growers and Planters Association of Nigeria, MAGPAN, Ebonyi State Branch approached rural farmers in their thousands in Okposi, Ugwulangwu and Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State for supply of their financial details for onward empowerment under the then President Muhammadu Buhari’s Anchor Borrowers Programme many, they felt that succour had indeed come their way. But that was not to be as they found out some months later that they had been rail-roded into a highway of fraud.

The fraud was exposed in November 2021 when one of the victims, Nzubechi Okoro, a Delta based Business man approached one of the commercial Banks to source for a loan facility.

Speaking during an interview with Newsmen recently in his Okposi village, Okoro narrated the teary ordeals that he and over 3, 000 other victims have gone through.

According to him, “My BVN was blacklisted by CBN through Ecobank and Maize Growers and Processing Association(MAGPAMA) and everybody in my community is complaining the same thing. I am based in Delta State but people have been calling me in my community complaining the same thing.”

He said, “On November 2021, I requested a loan facility from Sterling Bank. To my greatest surprise, they told me that I can’t get it, that I am indebted to Ecobank and I told them that I never secured any loan from any bank since I started my business. They told me no, that I should go to Ecobank, my branch in Warri where I based in which I account there”, he narrated.

Okoro said he had complained to the Ecobank there in Delta State but when they checked all their system they told him that he is not indebted to them.

“I went back to Sterling Bank and reported to them what Ecobank said and they insisted that I should revisit Ecobank, that I am indebted to them and that the debt is showing on their (Sterling Bank) system and that they cannot give me any loan.

I went back to Ecobank and complained to them. At the end, Ecobank gave me a letter of non-indebtedness. I still couldn’t get the loan because my BVN had been blacklisted by the CBN even when I was never a member of the said association. That was why I was advised by my Lawyer to sue Eco Bank and I did. Since that 2022, it was just in June 28th that the Court finally delivered judgement and ordered the Bank to pay me N10 Million Naira as damages.

Indeed it will be recalled that an Ebonyi State High Court, sitting in Abakaliki, the state capital had on June 28th ordered the Executive Chairman, Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ebonyi State office and Eco Bank Plc to pay N10 million damages in favour of one Nzubechi Okoro for fraudulently using his bank details to obtain loan facility without his consent.

Other respondents in the suit are; Mr Ebere Oji Odii, the Ohaozara Local Government Area Coordinator of MAGPAMAN; Mrs. Patience Nwabueze, and the Maize Growers, Processors & Marketers Association of Nigeria respectively.

A certified court judgement sighted by the media recently, the plaintiff, in suit number HAB/169/2022, had averred that his bank details and BVN were fraudulently used by the other three defendants in connivance with Eco Bank to obtain a loan facility from the bank after opening an account in the Ezza Road, Abakaliki branch.

The trial judge, Justice Chris Eze, had in the judgement according held that the 1st and 2nd defendants (Eco Bank and Odii) in their statements of defense never stated that the plaintiff was a farmer as to be a beneficiary of the Anchor Borrowers’ Fund, instead, they had averred that “they were not in a position to deny or admit paragraph 1 of the statement of claim where the plaintiff categorically deposed that he is a businessman dealing on musical and electronic equipment/devices.”

The judge had stated that the plaintiff proved that he never withdrew any money from the said account as against the 1st and 2nd defendants’ claim that he withdrew N555,531.82.

The judge further averred that, “The 1st and 2nd defendants left the evidence of the plaintiff completely unchallenged. All these are fatal to the case of the defendants. This honourable court then holds that the plaintiff proved his case on the balance of probabilities or preponderance of evidence as required by law.

“The plaintiff proved his case against the defendants, 1st and 2nd defendants having failed to rebut the evidence of the PW1 and the 3rd and 4th defendants having failed, refused and or neglected to challenge the pleadings and evidence of the plaintiff, despite being served with the plaintiff’s originating processes and hearing notices at all material times.”

Accordingly, the honourable court declared “that defendants shall jointly and severally pay to the plaintiff, the sum of N10 million only as general damages for the financial loss, embarrassment, emotional and psychological trauma and pain suffered by the plaintiff, following the blacklisting of his (the plaintiff) BVN by the CBN as a result of the unlawful and fraudulent use of his bank details and BVN by the 2nd to 4th defendants to obtain a loan facility from the 1st defendant and connivance of all the defendants to carry out their unlawful acts.”

Following this judgement, more victims have now cried out to the Press in a recent interview.

One of such victims, Maduabuchi Ogbonnia from Umunuka Okposi, narrated their ordeals in the hands of those they believed wanted to empower them.

“It’s a journey of three years ago, the thing came as a dream. One day we just woke up and they informed us that the federal government wants to assist farmers, that they want to give them loan for farming particularly maize. They told us that in South East, there is no much maize that they want to initiate it as a new development. We immediately queued to it”, he recounted.

Mmaduabuchi continued that, “From that day, we joined them and they started collecting money from us. Patient Nwabueze from Mebi Okpa was the organizer, she was the Coordinator as of then and Ebere West told us that everything about it was okay, that the money (loan) they want to give us is intact, that after our registration, the money will be put into our various accounts.

So, we started from that very day. The next day, they said we should come for orientation and we went. They told us that we are going to have clusters and we asked them what they mean by clusters and they replied that we are going to work as a team. They said that after the cultivation of the maize, the total production will be gathered together and sell and the people that will buy it are the federal government. They started collecting monies from us again apart from the registration money they collected. The first one was N1,000, they kept collecting money N2,500, N2,000 and all that.”

Mr. Mmaduabuchi further recollected that “After four days, they invited Ecobank to come and collect our data for opening of account to pay monies into our account. We were so happy and were rejoicing that new thing was coming.not knowing that it was fraud. No money was paid to us and we were going to that farm every two days for over two months.

We work in the morning and returned home in the evening without any pay, without water, without food. After working in that farm in Mebi Okpa, they took us to Uburu, Ebere West farm and we were paying transportation for it because there was no vehicle to convey us from that Uburu to Okposi”,he sorrowfully revealed.

He said the money they later paid into their accounts, they deducted all of them.

“If you go to the bank to access it, bank will tell you that you are still owing the federal government, that you don’t have access to that money and I am not owing at all. I didn’t borrow any money or loan, I have not borrowed in my life, I have never in my life borrowed for any purpose. Because of this, we can’t get grant. If others are getting grant, you cannot because of what Ebere West and Dan Nwabueze have caused us.”

Another victim, Mr. John Aja said the story was not any different for them. “Last year, they called us for maize empowerment. In our village, we have not less than 50 people they called and we believed that the government will empower us as they told us . So, they called us and we went for registration, we paid N2,500 each person and in Ohaozara local government area, we are more than 500,000 persons that registered for the empowerment. These 500,000 persons are from Okposi, Uburu and Ugwulangwu. They opened account for us and they called Ecobank people for it.”

He continued, “After two weeks, they started crediting everybody’s account. We started receiving credit alerts. In my own, I received over N180,000. When I received the alert, I was very happy and I didn’t touch it. They said we should come to Abakaliki for verification and I entered motor from Okposi here for Abakaliki for it. We demanded for ATM cards to access the money but they said no. On daily basis, they will call us to go to their farms and we went to those farms and planted the seeds. After the plantation, we did the weeding and everybody was involved in it. They didn’t give us anything throughout the farming activities; no food, water, money, nothing.

He said, “Along the line, we started receiving debit alerts from our phones. Sometimes, you see N20,000 debited in your account. After removing the money in the account they opened for us in Ecobank, they entered into our personal accounts and started debiting our monies. We have suffered a lot, we are dying, we need serious help.”

Another victim, Joy Aniezi, a woman in her sixties from Mebi Okpa, Okposi narrated that “a woman and her husband came to us and informed us that we are going to be empowered and we agreed and followed them. They gathered us and took us for registration.

After the registration, they carried maize seeds to us for planting in a very big land and we planted the seeds.We were many, youths, men and women including the elderly were involved in the farming. We worked all through, from morning till evening throughout the period without food, water and any payment.”

She added, “We started receiving alerts on our various phones, we started seeing monies. When we started receiving alerts, we were very glad and thanked God that we have been remembered. After sometime, they started debiting us, they started removing money from our accounts. I kept receiving debit alerts on my phone and I became worried. They deducted all the money they credited to our accounts. After deducting the monies in the account they opened for us, they started deducting monies in our individual private accounts and I was told that I borrowed money and that was why my money is being deducted in my accounts.”

Because of what they did to us, some of us have died. Madam Christiana Eze has died and many others I don’t know their names have also died. We want our monies, they should return all the monies they deducted from our accounts”, she pleaded, urging government at all levels to intervene on their behalf.

Another woman, Mrs. Nnennaya Aja, 54 years old said, “What I lost in this issue is enormous. I abandoned my private activities for this empowerment only to see this kind of mess, fraud in it. I worked for them, planted maize for them, did everything for them. It is painful that after all our labours, we didn’t benefit anything. They treated us badly and we can’t quantify what we lost. You can’t treat elders like us this way, it’s unfair and we are in pains.”

They all call on the Federal, State and Local Governments in the country to assist them in ensuring that they get justice against the accused persons.

When contacted, a top staff in Ecobank Plc, Ezza Road who pleaded not to be mentioned in print as he was not authorized to officially speak on the matter said the accounts were not opened in Abakaliki but in the Lagos Headquarters of the Bank.

” We have written and informed our head office and I think they are resolving the matter now. Some of them which cases have been resolved have stopped getting debit alerts in their accounts.

When contacted, the accused defendants were unable to respond to their calls or messages sent to their phones.

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