Olive Eyotaru Yemima, a Kampala based female reporter is reeling in pain after she discovered that her hard earned money had been withdrawn from an ATM at Stanbic Bank, Ntinda branch.
The fraudulent transaction was carried out on new year’s day.
According to Eyotaru, who previously worked with Uganda Radio Network, a news agency in Uganda, and now a freelancer that hustles to make both ends meet, after finding out the irregular withdrawal of the money, she reached out to the bank for help.
But for three months now, the bank is yet to unveil the CCTV footage to help identify the perpetrators and further establish if the transaction was conducted at the ATM or was an inside job.
“Dear Stanbic Bank Ntinda, for over a month, I’ve been “benching” for CCTV footage to find out about an irregular ATM withdrawal from my account on New Year’s day. What must I do to get helped? Please give me an answer. Good evening,” she expressed her distress on Twitter.
In response, the bank’s social media manager(s) said “Hello Eyotaru, we sincerely apologize for this unpleasant experience. We have engaged our branch management and service teams to investigate this incident and take action. We strive to offer excellent service deserving of you our Esteemed client.”
But the journalist wondered when the bank would take action since it’s the same response she has been receiving whenever she seeks answers on who withdrew her money.
Eyotaru’s complaint aroused anger from members of the public who have been victims of Stanbic Bank’s fraud.
“This kind of generic, lazy and incompetent response is no longer acceptable. Please go find the CCTV footage and invite the fellow to watch. This should take no longer than 2hrs.”
“But must she first come on social media and vent before you give her an update? Get serious.”
“You joking with stanbic Ntinda. They may even send you to the KCCA street lights camera claiming they don’t have cameras in the ATM section. By the way Stanbic, your Ntinda branch team connived and stole my staff motorbike when he had come to bank in Feb 2023 this year.”
Those are some of the thousands of comments from the members of the public who also exuded anger following Eyotaru’s tweet.
Whereas this journalist who is also a mother, didn’t disclose how much had been stolen from her account, shockingly when she reported the matter to Stanbic, management charged her shs 10,5000 to retrieve and review CCTV. The footage is yet to be availed to her.
Lately, the bank has been in the eye of the storm following a mega fraud of shs 9 billion which was orchestrated by top managers of the entity. They were last month arrested while others remain at large.
The public wonders if their deposits with the financial institutions are in safe custody at a time when every coin counts this ‘bleeding economy.’
No official at Ntinda branch was willing to speak on record when reached.
This website has learned that the top management has contacted Eyotaru for a meeting slated for Wednesday at the bank’s head offices.
Journalists are among the poorly paid workers in Uganda with highest (at the level of Editor in Chief) bagging shs 3 million, if he or she is employed by a state owned media house.
Private media houses pay their journalist peanuts while freelancers are paid per story that is published in the newspaper, website or broadcasted on television and radio.
A freelance journalist in Uganda working for a reputable media company earns shs 50,000 from every story that runs.
In a month, a hardworking scribe (freelancer) can file approximately 10 stories and only 5 are published.
