LAGOS —  Justice Yelim Bogoro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the final forfeiture of N81,108,143.08 connected to a fraud involving Sterling Bank Plc to the Federal Government.

The order followed a motion filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission through its counsel, Hannatu U. KofarNaisa.

The court had earlier granted an interim forfeiture order on October 2, 2025, directing that the funds be temporarily seized and published in a national newspaper for any interested party to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited.

According to the EFCC, investigations showed that the funds were part of over N2.5bn allegedly stolen by some customers of Sterling Bank who exploited a system glitch.

An affidavit deposed to by EFCC investigator Maina Gapani Gyal stated that the fraud occurred when customers used the PayAttitude banking platform to transfer funds even when their accounts were not funded.

Gyal stated in the affidavit: “Over N2,500,000,000 was stolen by some customers of the bank and converted to their own personal use as well as to the use of third-party beneficiaries.”

Investigators traced part of the proceeds to accounts linked to a major beneficiary, Sulaiman Kehinde Ojora.

The EFCC said Ojora allegedly concealed N43m in the account of his friend, Taiwo Oluwaseyi Alawode, domiciled in Access Bank, while N122.2m was traced to an account belonging to his wife, Aminat Olatanwa Ojora, held with Sterling Bank.

The affidavit further noted that the bank could not recover N295.9m from the fraud as the funds had already been withdrawn by some of the customers involved.

However, N81.1m was successfully recovered and subsequently sought by the EFCC to be permanently forfeited.

Justice Bogoro granted the request and ordered the final forfeiture of the recovered funds to the Federal Government.