Alleged fake credit alert: Court reserves judgment over N2.5m suit against Diamond Bank

Justice Angela Otaluka of the FCT High Court, Lugbe, has reserved judgment till February 5 over a N2.5 million fake credit alert allegedly received by Olajide Friday from Diamond Bank arising from a car transaction.
Cyril Nwaogu, the Counsel to Friday, a car dealer, while closing his case urged the court to aske Diamond Bank to restore the amount to his client and other damages caused.
Nwaogu said: “My client got an alert from a customer that the sum of N2.5 million has been credited to the plaintiff and he released the car, but on getting to the bank we discovered that the money was not credited to his account.
“We wrote to Diamond bank severally, but the bank promised to revert to us their findings, but we did not hear from it again, that was why we came to court.
“I had a N2.5 million transaction with my client and he called me that he has paid the money into my account, which I received a credit alert on the usual platform from the bank.”
He said he never questioned the veracity of the alert because he had no reason, as it was the usual way he received alert from the bank.
He said he had to release the car the moment he got the SMS alert from Diamond bank, adding that after three days, he went to the bank to claim his money and discovered that the money was not credited.
He blamed the bank for such anomaly, adding that receiving SMS alert was the only medium he could know that payment had been made.
He said he wrote to the bank and it promised to get back after investigation but to no avail.
Austin Uwanna, the Counsel to Diamond bank, told the court that his client would be applying for N500,000 damages from the plaintiff.
He said that the suit was baseless and unfounded because Diamond bank was not a party to the transaction.
Uwanna said that the plaintiff agreed with his customer that he would receive alert from the transaction, stressing that diamond bank was not a party to such agreement.
The defence counsel said that the plaintiff went to the bank and did not see any alert, adding that the bank could not be said to be culpable in such matter.