Justice Deinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered 54 banks to immediately return a total of N9,329,322,870 fraudulently transferred by hackers from an unnamed old generation bank.
A Federal High Court in Lagos has mandated 54 banks to recover and return N9.3bn fraudulently transferred from an old-generation bank in a major cyber heist.
Justice Deinde Dipeolu issued the order on April 15, 2025, following an ex parte application (FHC/L/CS/629/2025) by the victimized bank. The ruling requires banks to freeze all recipient accounts under a Post No Debit restriction and immediately repatriate recoverable funds. The breach, occurring on March 23, saw hackers siphon money from customer accounts before dispersing it across 54 financial institutions.
The bank detected unauthorized transactions and alerted partner institutions, tracing funds through layered transfers to secondary and tertiary accounts. While no arrests were disclosed, the judgment accelerates recovery efforts in one of Nigeria’s largest digital banking fraud cases.