By Nkechi Eze
Justice Yelim Bogoro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi has ordered the final forfeiture of ₦81,108,143.8 to the Federal Government of Nigeria in favour of Sterling Bank Plc.
The order was granted on Monday, March 9, 2026, following a motion on notice filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) through its counsel, Hannatu U. KofarNaisa.
According to a statement issued by the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, the court had earlier granted an interim forfeiture order for the funds on October 2, 2025, and directed that the order be published in a national newspaper to allow any interested party to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The money forms part of over ₦2.5 billion fraudulently withdrawn by some customers of Sterling Bank who exploited a system glitch in the bank’s electronic payment platform.
Investigations by the EFCC revealed that the unauthorized transfers were carried out through the PayAttitude Global Limited banking platform, an e-wallet and payment scheme subscribed to by Sterling Bank. The glitch enabled some customers to transfer funds even when their accounts were not funded.
Following a petition submitted to the Commission by Sterling Bank on July 18, 2022, EFCC operatives launched investigations which led to the tracing of the stolen funds to several accounts, including that of Sulaiman Kehinde Ojora, identified as one of the major beneficiaries of the fraud.
Further investigation revealed that Ojora concealed ₦43 million in the account of his associate, Taiwo Oluwaseyi Alawode, domiciled in Access Bank Plc, while another ₦122,200,009 was traced to the account of his wife, Aminat Olatanwa Ojora, domiciled in Sterling Bank.
Moving the motion for final forfeiture, KofarNaisa informed the court that the application was supported by an affidavit deposed to by an EFCC investigator, Maina Gapani Gyal.
In the affidavit, Gyal stated that more than ₦2.5 billion was fraudulently transferred by some bank customers and diverted to their personal use and that of third-party beneficiaries as a result of the system glitch.
He also disclosed that the bank was unable to recover about ₦295,916,201.02 from the fraudulent withdrawals as the funds had already been converted to personal use by the culprits.
However, he noted that ₦81,108,143.8 was successfully recovered from accounts linked to the fraud and presented before the court for final forfeiture, while the bank also recovered ₦490,349,000 from its internal ledger.
The EFCC counsel further informed 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, but no objections were filed.
After reviewing the application and accompanying documents, Justice Bogoro held that the motion had merit.
“Having gone through the motion and attachments, I find the application meritorious and the same is accordingly granted,” the judge ruled.
The court consequently ordered that the recovered sum be finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria in favour of Sterling Bank Plc.
