Mrs Okocha died of breast cancer on August 7, 2004. But 4 years later, she ‘visited’ her bank and withdrew N527,500. Her statement of account indicated that she withdrew N500,000 by ‘self ’ on February 19, 2008. On February 28, 2008, she
made another withdrawal of N27,500 by ‘self’. She made all the withdrawals at the Awolowo Road branch of the bank in Lagos.
Her only child, Chukwudi Uche Okocha, has this to say: “My mother died on August 7, 2004 and my dad died on February 1, 2006. About a month before mum died, she told me that she had over N200k left in her savings account; that was her salary account. When she died, she was paid her July salary. But being the only one, I was not able to process the transfer of the money to my account. My dad was unable to process it before he died.
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Between 2008 and 2009, I tried to process the letter of administration of my mother’s estate through the Lagos probate court and they gave me the certificate to get the money in the account. That was when I applied for the balance and they told me that the balance was about N500. I was shocked. I got a lawyer and when we went to see the then branch manager of the bank, she asked if I was sure that my mother was dead. We discovered that two withdrawals were made from her account in February, 2008. Did she come from her grave to withdraw the money from her account?
The withdrawals were made by ‘self’ according to the statement of account. It means that somebody, most likely a staff, withdrew the money. What I need now is for them to refund the money and pay some compensation for the inconveniences I have gone through. If I had been able to access the money, it’d have been very useful, particularly when I was in school. Again, the value of the money has depreciated in the past 11 years. You can imagine what I could have done if I had gotten the money then. So, they should compensate me.”
Meanwhile, he has written a petition to the AIG of Police in-charge of Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos…. I’m starting to believe dt there is truly life after death……
