It was on a Friday morning the weather was bright calm and promising, as I made plans of returning to uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state, were I base for the time being running an undergraduate degree program in the prestigious university of uyo, Akwa –ibom state Nigeria, only spent few weeks in port Harcourt for the holidays, now it’s time to go continue and finish what I started three years ago.
This hilarious drama started on the previous evening. I went out to go withdraw some cash from the ATM, so on getting there I mistakenly inputted the wrong pin and before I could try correcting that, my card was retained by the machine, wheew!!!, I had no option than to go back home and return to the bank the following day to get it back
By Friday morning I was ready to travel, but I have to get to the bank in order to retrieve my card, and make withdrawals, I entered the bank hall went straight to the customer care and lay my complain, the blond cute lady said, sorry we don’t give out retained ATM cards of another bank, it’s the CBN’s policy, but I told her I also have account with the bank she then referred me to another upstairs, he’s the one in charge of handling such complains related to Atm cards trap in our Atm she said…thankyou I said,
Went upstairs and repeated myself to the man, after several talks he said go to the lady and ask her to print out you BVN details BVN-BANK VERIFICATION NUMBER IS A UNIQUE SET OF NUMBERS THAT LINK ALL YOUR ACCOUNTS I had to wait for up to 30minutes for this because the network was down, there I was going back and forth between this two, after what seems like an hour thirty minutes I was done and I got my card then I left the bank, went to the ATM to withdraw but unfortunately for me, my card was declined, I tried several time, but same feedback, so I had to go to my bank to ratify the issue, there I set sail.. my HILLARIUOS ADVENTURE BEGINS
When I stepped out of the bank I met two ladies and enquire about the actual location of the bank they both argued about the actual location, so I decided on going along and asking question along the way, so I got to these junction called artillery and walked up to a man and asked him of the bank, he pointed to the left and said it there just take a cab and you will see it by the road side, which confirms to me what one of the lady was saying. And so I headed in that direction, took a cab and moved, all along my eyes were searching the roads for any sign of the bank, there the driver stopped to pick a passenger that’s when I asked him if the bank is located along he said no, I was confused and I asked him are you sure?, he said yeas, I stepped down and asked a lady who was by the road there and asked her if there’s the bank in this region she said no, and suggested I go the opposite direction that’s where the bank is located not this area,… so why did the ladies and the man directed me to this area?, ah I lamented
There and then I had to cross and board a cab back to where I came from, but before this I asked the cab driver, sir please can I find the bank along this way?, he paused for a moment and nodded sure enter , there he started describing were the bank is situated in a place called Rumuola just by the flyover, close to a photo studio, one other person in the cab said no it’s not situated there, a lady who sat close to me confirmed what the driver said that the bank is actually situated Rumuola after the bride close to a photo studio, we all drove in silent at about 7kilometre, he pointed at a very tall building and said to me that is the bank I was kind of confuse cause there were three tall building close to each other, now the lady who sat close to me also pointed and said that is the bank the first of the three building , I thanked them both and paid my fare, got down crossed and went straight into the building climb several stairs to finally am in, went straight to the customer care and began complaining..[selah] while in the cab I specifically mentioned the name of the bank so what happened to me earlier won’t repeat itself [resume], only for the bank staff to tell me excuse me, this is not the bank he said pointing at the ATM CARD in my hand, God!!! what a day, I looked around just realizing that am in a totally different bank, with what the bus driver and the lady told me I didn’t even bother to look at the building,
I felt bewildered wondering what things would be going thru the mind of the bank staff whom I have just spoken to, ,..immediately I stepped out went down and ask some few people around if the bank I was looking for is around here, they said no, that I should walk a few kilometers back crossed the road to a place called Boricamp, Boricamp is a large territory allocated to the Nigerian Amy barracks, and also house the Nigerian army Port Harcourt Headquarter base, division 6
I walked in got checked luckily I was with my student ID, so it was easy, to go thru, there I entered a cab to were the bank is, first of all I asked the driver if the bank is situated in here he said yes , get in, alright, then others entered and we moved, like 5minutes later I saw the bank,.. ooh my, what a relieve I exhaled stepped out and walked to the bank, once inside I walked straight to the customer care and repeated myself to personnel for the third time
We are very sorry please bear with us since the early hours of today the networks has been down and we have been unable to carry out any transaction due to network downtime, the blonde lady explained…..so now what?....... I almost shouted with disappointment written all over my face, she tried pleading and referred me to another branch of the bank that is far into town, ….am very sure they have network, there are you sure ?..Yes she said, alright, I was so reluctant to move but I had to get this money and head out for the journey today as to go meet up with lectures that has already began three weeks ago
And so I took a cab back to where I came from, once outside the army barracks I stopped another cab told the driver am headed to the bank he said okey hub in, and we moved, now if you know port Harcourt enough you realize the Governor of the state has began a construction of fly overs across major locations across the state, so from artillery junction to CFC junction there are four fly overs and the current one that is still been constructed is at around Presidential hotel, and GRA axis so because of these we had to boycott thru several other link roads to get to my destination which took about 15-20 minutes
The driver finally came to a halt and I came down walked over to the bank got in and went straight to the customer care where I was finally attended to in less than 30minutes I was out got the cash and head straight home. FINALLY
What a day it was, tired, exhausted, stressed, hungry, felt sleepy all in one, but still got to travel
Checked my watch there was still amble time left, got home took my bag and head straight to the terminal to book a ticket
