Photo: Man arrested in Lagos for opening 25 accounts in the same bank [SEE WHY]

A man in Lagos is in the custody of the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force after it was revealed that he had opened 25 accounts all within the same bank.

The man pictured above is 39-year-old Okonkwo Nwachukwu who is said to have opened the 25 accounts in Zenith Bank within the space of 3 days.

The accused was on his way to open the 26th account when he was apprehended by security officers.

Detectives attached to the SFU believe that the suspect had defrauded many financial institutions. Nwachukwu however denied doing anything fraudulent with the several accounts, stressing that he had to open the accounts because of the cashless policy in Nigeria.

According to the SFU spokesperson, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, a petition dated February 12, 2014 was received by the Commissioner of Police in charge of the SFU, alleging that Nwachukwu appeared at Amuwo Odofin Branch of Zenith Bank to open a savings account and presented an already completed savings account opening package with the name Obiozor Ifeanyi.

He had also identified himself as such with a National Identity Card. The petitioner said that while the Customer Service Office was checking the documents, the suspect went to the Marketing Unit and collected another savings account opening package and completed same with another name, Ogueji Nnamdi, and returned to the Customer Service Desk and presented same for account opening with another National Identity Card bearing Ogueji Nnamdi.

Isintume-Agu said: “The Petitioner told us that this attempt to open another savings account within minutes with another identity, made the Customer Service Officer to become suspicious. She decided to search the system with phone number 08162502677, which had been supplied by the suspect and discovered that he had already opened about 25 savings accounts at various branches bearing different names.

“The suspect confessed to the alleged crime but stated that the multiple accounts he opened was to enable him run his business successfully. He said that the cashless policy does not allow him to withdraw huge sum of money in one account and as such, he was advised to open multiple accounts so as to spread his money,” revealed Isintume-Agu.