Naira scarcity: Angry customers beat up bank security guard in Abia

Residents of Umuahia, Abia state manhandled a commercial bank’s security guard on Friday morning, because he grabbed a customer’s phone.

It was gathered that over 500 customers were waiting to enter the bank’s hall to withdraw cash in the early hours of the morning when the incident occurred.

The bank announced to its customers that there was no cash to pay them for the day as the bank would only offer other services and close by 2 pm and this infuriated customers.

The security officer known as Obi then incurred the wrath of disappointed customers when he attempted to seize a mobile phone belonging to a female customer who was making a video call inside the bank’s premises.

It was gathered that he accused the female customer, simply identified as Nwanyi Ubakala of recording chaotic scenes outside the banking hall to be uploaded on Facebook or Tik Tok platforms just to embarrass the bank.

But the female customer denied the accusation, explaining that she was only receiving a video call from her relative after which she quickly threw her phone inside her handbag.

However, the security man berated the woman for allegedly violating extant bank security rules which forbid recording of videos of any type in and around the bank’s premises or hall.

But determined to delete the alleged offensive videos, the security man grabbed the female customer’s handbag, insisting that she must delete the video in his presence or be arrested.

This made the woman raise an alarm which attracted over 10 customers, male and female, to heavily descend on the staff for trying to molest a woman because of a video call.

It took the intervention of other security staff of the bank to rescue their colleague from receiving further beating.

The drama caused a brief traffic jam at the FMC/Umudike junction area of Umuahia as many motorists slowed down to watch the scenario.