The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of N81.1 million fraudulently withdrawn from Sterling Bank Plc following a system glitch that was exploited by some customers.
Justice Yelim Bogoro granted the order on Monday after considering an application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), directing that the recovered funds be forfeited to the Federal Government in favour of the bank.
According to a statement by EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale, the commission told the court that the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities linked to a major fraud that arose from a temporary system glitch experienced by the bank.
After reviewing the motion and accompanying documents, Justice Bogoro held that the application had merit. The judge subsequently ordered the final forfeiture of N81,108,143.80 to the Federal Government for the benefit of Sterling Bank.
The court had earlier issued an interim forfeiture order for the funds on October 2, 2025, and directed the EFCC to publish the order in a national newspaper to allow any interested parties to challenge the forfeiture. The notice was later published in The Punch on February 19, but no claimant came forward to contest it.
In an affidavit supporting the application, EFCC investigator Maina Gapani Gyal said the commission commenced investigation after receiving a petition from Sterling Bank on July 18, 2022. The probe revealed that some bank customers exploited a system malfunction to fraudulently transfer more than N2.5 billion.
Investigations showed that the glitch enabled users of the PAYATTITUDE Global Ltd platform to initiate transfers even when their accounts lacked sufficient funds. PAYATTITUDE is a licensed Nigerian payment scheme that facilitates transactions through mobile, USSD and other digital channels.
The EFCC said part of the stolen funds was traced to accounts linked to Sulaiman Ojora, who was identified as one of the major beneficiaries. The commission alleged that Ojora concealed about N43 million in an account belonging to his associate, Taiwo Oluwaseyi Alawode, maintained with Access Bank Plc.
Another N122.2 million was reportedly traced to an account belonging to Ojora’s wife, Aminat Olatanwa Ojora, domiciled with Sterling Bank.
The anti-graft agency said Sterling 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 as part of efforts to mitigate the losses caused by the glitch.
The development marks another recovery linked to the incident. In a similar ruling in May 2025, the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the final forfeiture of about N1.29 billion withdrawn fraudulently through a system glitch at Sterling Bank after investigations by the EFCC.
