A Nigerian journalist and communications expert, Simbo Olorunfemi, has accused Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) of moving more than N126,000 from his account without explanation and delaying resolution efforts for weeks.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Mr Olorunfemi said the issue began on 10 July when he attempted to pay for a flight ticket with his GTBank card. He said the transaction failed on account of “insufficient funds” despite having transferred N300,000 into the account two days earlier.

“I checked my account balance and realised that it had been set back by N127,000, even without any entry in my account to explain this debit,” he wrote.

According to him, later that day two backdated entries appeared in his account, each showing debits of N63,138.86 as purported payments for Facebook Ads. He said repeated clicks on the entries did not generate receipts, describing them as “dead links.”

He said reminders to the bank eventually led to someone sending him a dispute form to fill and submit. Although he initially resisted filling the form for what he called “fictitious transactions,” he later completed it and sent it to his account officer more than two weeks after the incident was first reported.

Mr Olorunfemi said that even after submitting the form, GTBank failed to provide clarity. At some point, he said, the bank credited his account with N61,590 but backdated the entry to July 11. The narration read: “Dispense error reversal EurFacebk.”

“To my mind, the Bank might have assumed the payment of that N61,590 as refund of the N63,138.86 it debited my account. It even charged N50 for EML,” he wrote.

He said GTBank offered no explanation or apology for the two debits of N63,138.86 or the credit of N61,590. “It has not explained to me how N126,000 mysteriously disappeared from my account, and a ‘reversal’ of N61,590 made it in. This is almost 6 weeks after,” he added.

When he followed up with his account officer, Mr Olorunfemi said she told him it would take “a minimum of 45 days” for the bank to investigate the matter. “I don’t know when that countdown began. I suspect that the 45 days might have only started from 2 weeks back when she acknowledged receiving the dispute form,” he said.

“In other words, GTBank assumes it proper to fiddle as it wishes with a customer account, post fictitious transactions, debit the account at its pleasure, and then push the burden onto the customer to dispute this imaginary transaction, following which it then assigns onto itself ‘a minimum of 45 days to investigate it’,” he wrote.

He warned that the bank appeared indifferent to customers’ needs. “The right of the customer to his money does not count. It is of no concern to the Bank that the customer might actually be in dire need of the money. It could even be that the money is needed for urgent medical needs.”

Mr Olorunfemi also alleged that this was not the first time GTBank had posted fictitious transactions on his account. He recalled a previous case in which the bank “went as far as wiping out all what was on my dollar card, moved onto the domiciliary account, and then onto the Naira account, just to effect another imaginary debit.”

He said a fixed deposit once disappeared from its books for months, leading to a court case that dragged on for 10 years before it was disrupted when the Igbosere High Court in Lagos was set ablaze during the EndSARS protests.

“How a Bank thinks it normal that money put in its care, in trust, will simply disappear and the onus will then be that of the customer to dispute imaginary transaction and wait for 45 days for outcome of its ‘investigation’ beats me,” he wrote.

Other customers lament
Many Facebook users responding to Mr Olorunfemi’s post shared their own experiences, alleging unexplained debits, unresolved disputes and a lack of accountability from GTBank.

Chukwuma Okeke said he stopped banking with GTB after repeated issues. “The rogue banking of GTB is that it will debit you for something you didn’t purchase and remove it from your transaction record,” he wrote. He said the bank once charged him N30,000 for a Starlink subscription that cost N36,000. “Opay is now my regular spending account,” he added.

Another user, Abraham Godwin, alleged that customers had long faced unauthorised debits. “Frankly speaking this bank has been in the forefront of this wrong actions. I have heard tales of customers who wake up with strings of Debit messages from the bank with transactions foreign to them,” he wrote.

He said one pastor received debit alerts showing “sporty bets of over 2.4 million Naira.” Mr Godwin said he stopped using GTB despite keeping an old MasterCard, adding: “Since I opened my FCMB bank account I can tell you that I have had ‘over rest of mind’.”

Kunle Ojeleye also said he closed his account with GTB after over two decades. “I drew down my over-20 years account with them, which was my primary account, for almost a similar reason many months ago and started using another bank,” he wrote.

Another commenter, Olumide Olugbemi-Gabriel, accused the bank of malpractice. “I have posted evidence of the shenanigans and outright criminality of GTB,” he wrote.

He said someone once advised him to sue the bank after discovering that an account was opened in his name without his consent. “This is a bank that I dislike with a passion because of constant customer complaints that I usually come across.”

Rashid Ahmed said he was charged twice for a Netflix upgrade even though he did not have a Netflix account. “I went to the bank, but the issue wasn’t resolved,” he wrote.

Frank Ezekiel described the allegations as fraud. “This is a clear case of FRAUD!!! GTBank in simple terms ‘Fraudulently defrauded you’ and it’s common amongst most Nigerian banks and institutions (the telecoms mainly): operating with lawless impunity, which they very often get away with because the average Nigerian gives up fighting against these fraudulent acts,” he said.

Past complaints resurface
The latest outrage is not new. In November 2024, PREMIUM TIMES reported widespread complaints from GTBank customers following the bank’s core system migration.

Among them was Temilade Onilede, who initially lost money after a failed point-of-sale transaction where N3,100 ballooned into a deduction of N5,100. Matters worsened when she discovered that her account balance, which had risen to more than N50,000 after payments from her office and clients, had suddenly crashed to just N1,500.

Her troubles deepened when a friend transferred N171,000 to her account: she received an alert, but the funds vanished soon after without any trace in her banking records.

Later, she was hit by multiple unauthorised debits labelled “web Google Play NG”, even though she never used her card online or received OTPs for such transactions. She spent long hours in the banking hall trying to resolve the issue, only to be told that “fraudulent activity” was linked to her card, an explanation she strongly disputed.

Her colleague, Silas Jonathan, faced a similar ordeal. A N40,000 transfer he made to Ms Onilede was debited twice without crediting her account. He later found his own Naira and foreign currency accounts blocked, with deposits failing to reflect, unexplained withdrawals, and error messages each time he tried GTBank’s *737# service.

While stranded abroad, he was unable to access his savings in dollars and euros, even as colleagues using other banks had no such issues. After repeated visits to GTBank branches, he was advised by staff not to rely on the account for salary payments, an admission that left him frustrated and financially vulnerable.

Despite repeated assurances from GTBank that glitches from the system upgrade would be resolved, both Ms Onilede and Mr Jonathan told this newspaper that as of today, nearly a year later, their missing funds have still not been restored.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Olorunfemi Thursday evening, he told this newspaper that there hasn’t been any resolution yet.

Charles Eremi of GTCO’s Corporate Communication Unit did not answer his calls. WhatsApp messages sent to his phone on Thursday were delivered but had not been replied to as of press time.