An innocent customer of a frontline Nigerian bank, Standard Chartered Bank has been dealt severe blows by the otherwise prestigious bank.
According to a statement released to our reporter by Strict Attorneys, the legal counsel to Chief Hakeem Adebayo Shobande, a customer of the bank was denied visa for a trip to Italy by reason of the bank’s ineptitude.
The information made available was that the bank denied the existence of Hakeem Adebayo Shobande’s account upon request from them by the Italian embassy in Nigeria via email dated 10th October 2023, thereby costing him a time based appointment in Italy where he had committed a substantial non refundable amount.
All on the premise of the bank’s gaffe where his account’s existence was bluntly denied when the Italian embassy contacted them about the duly signed account statement, which he collected from the bank and presented as part of the required documents for his traveling process.
With the damage and loss he incurred because of the denied visa, Chief Hakeem Adebayo Shobande has suffered irreparable loss because the bank claimed ignorance of his standard chartered account thereby causing the embassy to initiated criminal investigation against the honest businessman. To further set him back, the criminal investigation orchestrated by the bank’s action eventually occasioned the confiscation of his International Passport by the Nigerian Police Special Fraud Unit. By extension, he could not get entry visas to other countries that were ready to issue same to him, thereby scuttling his business and leisure travel plans.
According to Mr Taiwo Onayinka, a partner in the law firm of Strict Attorneys, Chief Shobande has instructed his lawyers to seek redress for the bank’s wrong doing in a competent court of law. He further warned the innocent public to be wary of unscrupulous financial institutions who care less about their fiduciary responsibilities towards their customers.
