The publisher of Hallowmace Magazine, Mr Sunny Anderson Osiebe says he has returned the sum of N98million which was wrongly paid into his UBA bank account.
Osiebe revealed that he didn’t know the money was N98million when he initially got the alert.
“On Friday I got an alert on my phone, I didn’t know it’s N98milion.This very company, I have known them for like over four years now .They were owing me for the last job I did. When I got the alert, I thought it was the money they owed me that they paid”.
Upon realizing their mistake, a rep of the company, U-Sylva Construction Ltd called him on the morning of Monday, 9th of December 2019 to notify him of their error.
“On Monday I got a call from the company that some money was mistakenly transferred into my account. So I went to the bank, withdrew N98,000 and took it to the company. When I got there, they told me that it was N98million that was transferred to my account, not N98,000. I followed them to the bank and it was there I confirmed that it was actually N98million. Because I am a man of integrity, I didn’t want to start arguing with them. So I when I confirmed, I decided that I was going to transfer the money back to them. My bank told me I can’t transfer the money at that moment (Yesterday). So this morning(Tuesday), I went to the bank and did the transfer. The company confirmed receiving the 98 million mistakenly paid into my account”.
When asked how he felt when he eventually discovered it was N98million that was transferred into his account, he said:
“I wasn’t shocked because it’s another person’s money .The reason why I decided to withdraw the 98,000 is because I was so broke that I said to myself If I should take N98,000 to this them, they would at least give me N5,000 to buy fuel in my car”.
The Hallowmace boss said there is a need for the Nigerian media to tell stories like this because they are good for the public domain.
“Sometimes a lot of these stories are very good for the public domain. It will encourage other people because we live in a very delicate country. When people hear stories like this, some will believe while some will not. It’s left for us to be able to convince them, stating that we still have some good guys around”.
Osiebe also urged Nigerians to be honest at all times, adding that we don’t need to follow the footsteps of others.
“It is good for us to sleep with our two eyes closed. When you find yourself in such situations, don’t follow the trend, try as much as possible to be godly and to do the right thing. That is the only advice I can give to people. As I speak to you, when they told me I had N98 million, I didn’t have a dime in my account. So ordinarily, I would have negotiated to get N1m from them before returning the money. I didn’t do that because I am a man of integrity”.
Osiebe who is also the convener of the Legislative Conference said though he is yet to be compensated, what is important to him is the message he has been able to pass across.
“Well I am yet to get compensation; they told me they will compensate me when they get the alert. Compensation is not important to me, what is important to me is the message I have been able to pass across through my gesture that we still have honest Nigerians in the country. If they compensate, good. If they don’t, I have moved on with my life”.
