Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Justice Yelim Bogoro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the final forfeiture of N81,108,143.8 to the Federal Government of Nigeria in favour of Sterling Bank Plc.
The order followed a motion on notice filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, through its counsel, Hannatu U. KofarNaisa.
The court had earlier granted an interim forfeiture of the funds on October 2, 2025, and directed that the order be published in a national newspaper for interested parties to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
Investigations revealed that the funds were part of more than N2.5 billion allegedly stolen by some customers of Sterling Bank through unauthorized transfers caused by a system glitch experienced by the bank.
According to the EFCC, the fraud was discovered after the bank filed a petition to the commission on July 18, 2022, prompting an investigation that led to the tracing of the stolen funds to several bank accounts.
One of the major beneficiaries identified in the investigation was Sulaiman Kehinde Ojora.
The EFCC said Ojora allegedly concealed N43 million in the account of his friend, Taiwo Oluwaseyi Alawode, domiciled in Access Bank Plc.
Investigators also discovered that N122.2 million was hidden in the account of his wife, Aminat Olatanwa Ojora, maintained with Sterling Bank.
In an affidavit deposed to by EFCC investigator Maina Gapani Gyal, the commission explained that the fraud occurred due to a system glitch which allowed some customers to illegally transfer funds through the PayAttitude banking platform.
“That over N2,500,000,000 was stolen by some customers of the bank and converted to their personal use as well as to the use of third-party beneficiaries,” the investigator stated in the affidavit.
He added that the glitch allowed customers to transfer funds using the PayAttitude Global Ltd platform even when their Sterling Bank accounts were not funded.
According to the EFCC, Sterling Bank was able to recover N81,108,143.8, which formed the subject of the forfeiture order, while N490,349,000 was also salvaged from the bank’s internal ledger.
Counsel to the commission told the court that the interim forfeiture order had been published in The Punch newspaper on February 19, 2026, inviting any interested party to contest the forfeiture.
After considering the application, Justice Bogoro held that the EFCC had established sufficient grounds for the final forfeiture.
“Having gone through the motion and attachments, I find the application meritorious and the same is accordingly granted,” the judge ruled.
Consequently, the court ordered that the recovered funds be finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria in favour of Sterling Bank.
