Ruqayat was seen crying inside the banking hall and attracted attention from officials and customers.
She said a man dressed in a suit approached her while on a queue, along other depositors.
She said, "He claimed to be a staff of the bank and demanded if I had a bank verification number, to which I answered no. He collected the money for ease of the transaction and gave me a verification form to fill.”
While she moved away to fill the form, Rukayat said, the man went to the counter and was seen talking to a teller. By the time Rukayat was done, the pretended bank official had gone.
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Rukayat, who works in retail shop selling iPhones at Balogun street in Ikeja, burst into tears.
“The money belongs to my boss. I have just been employed two weeks ago and I don’t know where to get a refund for her,” she said sobbingly.
Many bank customers were in disbelief about Rukayat’s story, while a bank security guard ordered her out of the hall.
Outside the banking hall, few Bureau de Change operators sympathized with Rukayat. A middle aged Hausa-speaking man, Ibrahim Hamisu said a similar incident had happened previously in the bank and the fraudster was arrested.
The previous fraudster, Hamisu said, acted as though he was a bank official and volunteered to help two girls who had come to open accounts with the task. "He (fraudster) collected two laptops from the two girls and gave them forms to fill. They were able to discover who he was through the CCTV, when the ladies raised an alarm. The bank was thoroughly searched, but the fraudster had fled by then,” Hamisu said.
