Court orders final forfeiture of N81.1 million recovered from bank customers

The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of N81.1 million recovered from customers of Sterling Bank Plc who reportedly took advantage of “a system glitch” to steal from the bank.

According to the statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) spokesperson Dele Oyewale, the judge, Yelim Bogoro, ordered the forfeiture of the money to the federal government but in favour of Sterling Bank.

The statement said the judge gave the ruling on Monday after granting an application filed by the anti-graft agency.

The statement noted that the EFCC lawyer, Hannatu KofarNaisa, told the court that the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities arising from a major fraud linked to a system glitch experienced by the bank.

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After considering the application and supporting documents, the judge ruled that the request had merit.

“Having gone through the motion and attachments, I find the application meritorious and the same is accordingly granted,” Mr Bogoro said.

He subsequently ordered the final forfeiture of N81,108,143.8 to the federal government in favour of Sterling Bank.

Interim forfeiture

The court had earlier granted an interim forfeiture order for the funds on 2 October 2025 and directed the EFCC to publish the order in a national newspaper to allow any interested parties to contest the forfeiture.

According to the commission, the notice was published in The Punch on 19 February, but no claimant came forward to challenge the forfeiture.

In an affidavit supporting the application, an EFCC investigator, Maina Gapani Gyal, said the commission began investigating the matter after receiving a petition from Sterling Bank on 18 July 2022.

Mr Gyal said investigations revealed that more than N2.5 billion was fraudulently transferred by some bank customers following a system glitch.

“The said fraud and unauthorised transfer of funds was due to a system glitch in the bank wherein over N2,500,000,000 was allegedly stolen,” he said.

He explained that the glitch enabled customers to exploit the PAYATTITUDE Global Ltd banking platform to transfer funds even when their accounts were not funded.

The PAYATTITUDE Global Ltd platform is a licensed Nigerian payment scheme that enables users to make financial transactions, including transfers and withdrawals, via mobile, USSD, and digital channels.

Beneficiaries

The EFCC said investigations traced part of the stolen funds to accounts linked to Sulaiman Ojora, identified as one of the major beneficiaries of the fraud.

According to the commission, Mr Ojora allegedly concealed N43 million in an account belonging to his associate, Taiwo Oluwaseyi Alawode, domiciled with Access Bank Plc.

Another N122.2 million was traced to an account belonging to his wife, Aminat Olatanwa Ojora, maintained with Sterling Bank.

The EFCC said the bank was able to recover N81.1 million from the fraudulent transactions, while an additional N490.3 million was salvaged from the bank’s internal ledger.

In a similar case involving Sterling Bank, system glitches have led to court-ordered forfeiture.

In May 2025, the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the final forfeiture of about N1.29 billion withdrawn fraudulently due to a system glitch.

The court’s decision followed a motion on notice dated 8 January, filed by Ms KofarNaisa.

The funds were reportedly withdrawn unlawfully by certain individuals due to a system glitch at Sterling Bank.

Following a petition from the bank alleging the theft of N2.5 billion, the EFCC conducted investigations that led to the identification and tracing of the stolen funds to multiple accounts.

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During the motion for the final forfeiture order, the EFCC lawyer argued that the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.

Ms KofarNaisa also informed the court that the interim forfeiture order was published in Punch newspaper on 24 March 2025, inviting any interested parties to show cause why the funds should not be permanently forfeited.

After reviewing the submissions by Ms KofarNaisa, the judge held that “having gone through the motion and attachments, I find the application meritorious and same is accordingly granted”.

The judge then ordered the final forfeiture of the funds to the federal government in favour of Sterling Bank.