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The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday ordered 12 commercial banks and six fintech platforms to freeze (place on post-no-debit) about 69 accounts linked to alleged fraudulent and unauthorised credit transactions.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik granted the order following a motion ex parte filed by the legal representative of the Inspector-General of Police, Victor I. Okoye, Esq.
Nairametrics reports that the latest legal development is based on a petition by eTranzact International Plc, which borders on database penetration and transaction manipulation on its internet banking platform, leading to fraudulent credits to beneficiary accounts in other banks.
What they are saying
At the hearing, Okoye announced his appearance for the apex police authority.
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He subsequently adopted his processes and urged the court to grant the application.
Relying on Sections 44(2)(k) and 251(d) of the 1999 Constitution, as well as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, he urged the court to order the financial institutions to freeze all the affected accounts domiciled in their respective banks and allegedly used to launder the illicit funds.
He also asked the court to order the financial institutions to issue the IGP with certified true copies of the statements of account and account-opening packages of all the accounts linked to the criminal activities under investigation for further investigation.
After hearing the application, the judge granted the request.
N181 million recovered so far, substantial funds remain outstanding — IGP
According to an affidavit in support of the application, deposed to by a staff member of the Force Headquarters, Abuja, eTranzact sent the petition to the IGP, which was subsequently approved and forwarded to the Commissioner of Police, National Cybercrime Centre, for investigation.
The said attack on the eTranzact system occurred between July 27 and 28, 2026, and subsequently on August 1 and 2, 2026.
Multiple unauthorised interbank credit transactions were processed through eTranzact’s payment ecosystem, the official stated.
Following the incidents, eTranzact was said to have activated its incident response procedure and commenced a comprehensive internal investigation through its Audit Department and relevant operational teams.
Containment measures were simultaneously implemented to mitigate further losses and preserve available evidence.
Preliminary investigations showed that the fraudulent transactions, which led to the alleged unlawful credits, did not originate from any authorised transaction-processing activity on eTranzact.
Preliminary findings indicated that eTranzact “suffered financial exposure in the aggregate sum of N1,387,286,000,” while prompt engagement with receiving financial institutions preserved N181 million.
- “The substantial portion of the proceeds remains outstanding, with the imminent risk of being dissipated by the threat actors who are poised at concealing evidence or otherwise evade law enforcement unless urgent investigation measures are undertaken,” the affidavit partly reads.
The IGP hinted at the possible prosecution of the defendants.
More insights
In Nigeria, several banks and fintech platforms have witnessed system breaches and internet fraud, leading to the diversion of funds and subsequent litigation.
A staff member of Access Bank Plc, Abdulmajeed Agboola, had in 2025 narrated to the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, how the bank’s former employee allegedly accessed the bank’s server through a private laptop, resulting in a system glitch in customers’ accounts that led to a N5 billion fraud.
In 2025, fintech firm Moniepoint applied to join as a co-respondent in a legal dispute involving an alleged ₦21.5 billion in fraudulent duplicate payments made through Providus Bank’s POS terminals, which ten POS merchants reportedly exploited.
- In 2024, the Federal High Court ordered FairMoney, PalmPay and Opay to reverse N139,630,000 unlawfully credited to their customers due to a system glitch at TAJ Bank.
In 2025, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered eight Nigerian commercial banks to lift (unfreeze) post-no-debit (PND) restrictions placed on 13 bank accounts that had previously been frozen following a court order obtained by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) in connection with a 2022 financial misappropriation investigation.
Justice Emeka Nwite gave the order following an ex parte motion filed by the IGP’s counsel, Wisdom Madaki, Esq.
The court was asked to unfreeze the accounts to allow the respondents to resume their normal and legitimate transactions.
What you should know
The legal development adds to the growing list of post-no-debit litigation involving law enforcement agencies and financial institutions.
- According to a new industry report unveiled by compliance technology firm Adhere, Nigeria’s reported digital payment fraud losses declined by more than 50% to N25.85 billion in 2025 from N52.26 billion in 2024, but fraud attacks are becoming more targeted, sophisticated and costly.
The report highlighted that cybercriminals are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence and sophisticated attack methods, making individual fraud incidents significantly more expensive for financial institutions.
- Earlier this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also expressed concerns about rising electronic fraud threats, urging banks and other financial institutions to take prompt action to safeguard Nigeria’s expanding digital payments ecosystem.
According to the apex bank, emerging fraud patterns were becoming more complex and required industry-wide coordination.
It added that threats such as social engineering, SIM-swap abuse, insider compromise and Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams were placing increasing pressure on Nigeria’s payment systems.
