UNITY BANK SUED FOR UNAUTHORIZED DEBIT OF N324,000

Tersugh Wuese Nelson, a customer of Unity Bank, has filed a lawsuit against the bank, alleging unauthorized debits to the tune of N324,000 from his account. On Saturday, August 26, 2023, Tersugh woke up and discovered 12 debit transactions on his account through email notifications. These debit transactions occurred in quick succession, with 10 of them happening within two minutes on Friday, August 25, 2023, at about 11:51pm, while the other two happened at about 2:49am on Saturday 26^th August, 2023.

Upon discovering the debits, Tersugh immediately emailed the bank, stating that he did not initiate or authorize the transactions. After several email exchanges, Unity Bank informed him in October 2023 that their investigation revealed the disputed transactions were web-based, conducted using his ATM card details (PAN, PIN, expiry date, and CVV) via the Flutterwave platform as detailed below: 

The bank stated that the transactions were authenticated using Tersugh’s ATM card PIN, which only he knew, and that their review of the card activity logs did not indicate any PIN tries or changes prior to the transactions. This, the bank argued, indicated that the person conducting the transactions knew Tersugh's PIN. Unity Bank further claimed that they had reached out to Flutterwave for a possible refund, but Flutterwave declined, stating that the value was given to the cardholder.

Consequently, the bank concluded that, in accordance with CBN regulations on liability shift regarding card and PIN usage, it was not liable for the unauthorized transactions, as Tersugh's ATM card details and PIN were used to validate the transactions.

Rejecting the bank's findings, Tersugh has filed a case at the High Court of Justice in Makurdi, Benue State (Case No.: MHC/215/2024: Tersugh Wuese Nelson v. Unity Bank Plc.). He alleges that the bank was negligent in protecting his funds by failing to implement behavioral monitoring systems and robust fraud monitoring tools to detect and block suspicious transactions in real time, as required by CBN regulations.

Tersugh is requesting that the court order Unity Bank to refund the N324,000 debited from his account without authorization. Additionally, he is demanding N10 million in damages from the bank.