System Glitch: High Court Orders Final Forfeiture Of N1.2bn

The Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N1,292,798,746.81, stolen by some individuals from Sterling Bank Plc due to a system glitch.

The said sum is to be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the court ruled.

A statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Saturday, said Justice D.I. Dipeolu passed the verdict, informing that the money was allegedly, criminally withdrawn by some individuals owing to a system glitch experienced by Sterling Bank Plc.

This made the bank to file a petition to the commission.

The EFCC said upon receipt of the petition, it commenced investigation that led to the identification and tracing of the stolen funds to various accounts.

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According to the EFCC, the sums sought to be forfeited were domiciled as follows in:

• M Sharif Inter-Trading and Marketing Company Ltd.’s UBA account (N900,000,000);
• Mustapha Abubakar’s UBA account (N255,872,842.84);
• Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s UBA account (N12,195,093);
• Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s Jaiz Bank (N41,119,917.13);
• Abubakar Mustapha Sharif’s First Bank account (N19,069,567.73); and
• Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s Sterling Imal (the alternative bank account) (N30,850,158.12),” the statement partly reads.

The court had, on March 12, 2025, granted an interim forfeiture order of the funds and also directed the publication of the same in a national daily for any interested party to show cause why the money should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government.

A motion on notice dated January 8, 2025, and filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, through its counsel, Hannatu U. KofarNaisa, was subsequently moved in court.

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Moving the motion for the final forfeiture order, the EFCC legal team told the court that the money was reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities leveraging system glitch, and deserved to be forfeited permanently.

The EFCC also informed the court that the Commission had published the interim forfeiture order in The Punch newspaper of March 24, 2025, for any interested party to show cause why the final order of forfeiture should not be made in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Justice Dipeolu, after listening to the submissions by the EFCC, held that “having gone through the motion and attachments, I find the application meritorious and same is accordingly granted.”

Consequently, the judge ordered the final forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government of Nigeria in favour of Sterling Bank Plc.