After spending hours at a generation bank in Agbor, Delta State, South-South Nigeria, an unidentified bank customer collapsed and died.
According to eyewitness accounts, the customer died after futile attempts to withdraw cash from the bank, but police have dismissed the account, claiming that the customer was at the bank to pick up his Automated Teller Machine card.
According to SaharaReporters, the incident occurred on Thursday in the state’s Ika South Local Government Area.
DSP Bright Edafe, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed the incident to SaharaReporters, saying the deceased was in the bank to collect his ATM card.
“He was not trying to withdraw cash, he came to collect his ATM card,” he said.
Nigerians have decried the painful experience they endure in commercial banks to withdraw cash following the redesign of N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the attendant scarcity.
Many banks and ATMs have not been dispensing cash – either old or new notes.
Some frustrated bank customers including Point of Sale operators have lamented how they visited different banks but could not make withdrawals at the counter or from ATMs.
Meanwhile, some banks have been rationing cash dispensed to customers with some paying a maximum of N1,500 per customer.