Rahmon Alaba Mutairu, an Oyo State-based laundryman, has narrated to FIJ how Kuda Microfinance Bank arrested him and forced him to give up the money locked in his account with the bank.

The laundryman, who is also into cryptocurrency, said that in February, one Tonye Egbejule bought some units of USDT, a variant of cryptocurrency, from him and he received the payment for the transaction via his Kuda account.

Surprisingly, they locked his account and asked him to provide some means of identification before unlocking it.

“We are conducting a review of your account to help us profile your account accordingly. Please share the following information with us,” Kuda said in an email to Mutairu.

“I transacted 982.15 units of USDT at the rate of N745.19 with Tonye Egbejule, a fellow Nigerian, on February 7, 2023, and he paid me via my Kuda account. Though I don’t know him in real life, that was not my first time selling cryptocurrency to him. I had never had a negative incident with him,” Mutairu told FIJ.

He said that his efforts to have the financial agency remove the restriction on his account were unsuccessful.

“They asked me to provide evidence of what I do for a living, nature of my occupation, income range, business registration documents, a picture of me holding my valid government-issued means of identification and proof of house address,” he said.

“I have all but business registration documents. I find that request strange because my account is not a business account; it’s a personal account.

“On May 30, I travelled from Ibadan to their head office in Yaba, Lagos State, to show them my available legitimate identification documents and have them resolve the issue.”

He, however, got a shocker. He said a customer agent directed him to her superior to table his complaint. A man he considered a manager told him to wait for “those who are looking for you”.

“Some moments into entering the manager’s office, one police officer in plain clothes came in and arrested me. He handcuffed me and I followed him into an Uber car waiting outside,” he said.

“I met another police officer in the car and the Uber driver drove us down to FCU Ikoyi. I wasn’t told what my offence was until we got to the station.”

Mutairu would later find out one of the officers was Ayodeji Bolaji. According to him, it was Bolaji that arrested him and explained to him that Flutterwave had accused him of receiving proceeds of a crime.

“Officer Bolaji explained to him at the station that Flutterwave alleged that some money was stolen from their reserves and my account was used to siphon a portion of it. I was dumbstruck,” the laundryman said.

“He said I had to return the money I received from Tonye. To do that, he said, I had to forgo the N494,853 balance locked in my account and add the deficit to it. At this point, I had already become helpless.

“I had to make distress phone calls to my friends and relatives to help me contribute the money. After several hours, the money was ready. I asked Officer Bolaji to give me their account for my friend to send it directly to them.

“He said transfer was not acceptable. So, he called a point of sale (PoS) terminal operator doing business very close to the station. He said my bail sum was N50,000 and that I should add to the transfer. I was frustrated the more. I begged him countless times before he agreed that I should pay N20,000.

“Eventually, my friend transferred N251,000 to the PoS lady’s account domiciled with the United Bank for Africa (UBA). The name on the account is ‘Mary Queen Eche’.

“Kuda and the police conspired to ruin me. I know nothing about the fraud allegation they levelled against me. If I had soiled my hands in such a deal, I would have abstained from going to their office in all consciousness.”

Kuda’s response to FIJ’s request for comments on June 8 reads, “Note that we do not discuss our customers with third parties.”

Speaking with FIJ on June 12, Bolaji confirmed the incident. He posed several questions to this reporter, saying Mutairu still had many questions to answer.

At the same time, he told our reporter that “the investigation you want to publicise, I would advise you not to do so”.

“Come in person to challenge our office to get your facts before you go ahead to publish such information,” he said.