A former marketing executive with one of the young generation banks is in hot soup, after operatives arrested him for being in possession of a suspected stolen Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card and using same to draw cash from a machine.

But the suspect, Samuel Umunna, told policemen attached to Ikeja Police Station that he is neither a thief nor did he steal the ATM card found in his possession.

According to him, “I was working with Intercontinental Bank Plc, before Access Bank absorbed it and laid off a good number of Intercontinental Bank staff, the exercise that also affected me. On the 19th of May, 2015 I was going to work at my new working place around Oba-Akran, when at one of the banks’ ATM on Oba-Akran, I stopped by to get some cash that I would use for my lunch later in the day, when a lady who was using the machine when I got there, asked for my assistance.”

He explained that he never met the woman before and did not know that she was trying to draw money with a stolen ATM card. “No sooner did I finished assisting her when some plain clothed guys, who were standing some meters away from us, identified themselves as policemen and arrested myself and the woman.”

Samuel said the policemen took him and the woman into the banking hall of the financial institution that owned the ATM and showed him his picture captured by the ATM secret camera footage, before taking them to Ikeja Police Station, where he was told that the card was a stolen one and that it belonged to a senior customs officer.

Investigation has revealed that the lady is a relation to the customs officer, and that she stole the ATM to go and withdraw money from the man’s account. It was also discovered that what gave her in was the particular type of ATM machine she went to use. “That particular machine is the type that has touch-screen. So, it was when she was fumbling with the buttons, rather than touching the command buttons on the monitor, that Samuel offered to assist, apparently to get her out of the way, so that he can carry out his own transaction.”

It was learnt that the police have since contacted the owner of the card, and it was the customs officer that cleared the air on the real thief of his card, before the Police would grant Samuel bail and allowed him to go home, after spending two days in Police cell at Ikeja Police station.

Recall that of late, there has been warning messages circulating around in the social media, advising members of the public to be careful of who they assist at the ATM points. The message added that in the event of a customer in such difficulty, the best and appropriate person to assist the customer, should be the bank’s official, or the security personnel attached to the bank.

Police source said it was the cooperation of the customs officer that saved the day for Samuel, as he would have been charged to court for stealing and other charges that could follow. “The Customs officer is a honest and a straight forward man. He just came and said he does not know that young man from Adam and that his ATM card was stolen at his home.”