COURT ORDERS FINAL FORFEITURE OF N81.1M STOLEN FROM STERLING BANK TO FG
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Justice Yelim Bogoro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Monday, March 9, 2026, ordered the final forfeiture of N81,108,143.08 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, on October 2, 2025, granted an interim forfeiture order on the funds 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 recovered funds were part of over N2.5 billion allegedly stolen by some customers of Sterling Bank due to a system glitch, which enabled them to transfer funds to their personal accounts and those of third-party beneficiaries.
According to the EFCC, investigations commenced after the bank submitted a petition to the commission on July 18, 2022. The investigation led to the tracing of some of the stolen funds to accounts linked to Sulaiman Kehinde Ojora, identified as one of the major beneficiaries of the fraud.
Further findings revealed that Ojora allegedly concealed N43 million in the account of his friend, Taiwo Oluwaseyi Alawode, domiciled in Access Bank Plc, and N122.2 million in the account of his wife, Aminat Olatanwa Ojora, domiciled in Sterling Bank.
Moving the application for the final forfeiture order, EFCC counsel told the court that the motion was supported by an affidavit deposed to by Maina Gapani Gyal, an investigator with the commission.
In the affidavit, Gyal stated that the fraudulent transfers were facilitated through the PayAttitude Global Limited banking platform, an e-wallet and payment scheme subscribed to by Sterling Bank.
He explained that the system glitch allowed some customers to illegally transfer funds despite having insufficient balances in their accounts.
The investigator further stated that the bank was unable to recover about N295.9 million from the total stolen funds, as the money had already been withdrawn and converted by the beneficiaries.
However, the bank was able to recover N81,108,143.08, which the court has now ordered to be finally forfeited to the Federal Government, while an additional N490,349,000 was salvaged from the bank’s internal ledger during the recovery process.
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