The Federal High Court, Abuja, has granted an interim freezing order against several accounts in Fair Money Micro-finance Bank Ltd, Palm Pay Limited,
The Federal High Court, Abuja, has granted an interim freezing order against several accounts in Fair Money Micro-finance Bank Ltd, Palm Pay Limited, and Opay Digital Services Limited, mandating the organizations to reverse N139,630,000 credited to some of their customers and account holders as a result of a “system glitch” at TAJ Bank Ltd. The order was made following a motion ex parte filed by Taj Bank Ltd and six of its customers on July 23, 2024, in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1018/2024 against the three organizations. The Nigerian Interbank Settlement System Plc was listed as the fourth respondent.
In their originating summons and motion ex parte, TAJ Bank’s legal team urged the court to hold that based on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Regulatory Framework for Banking Verification (BVN) Operations and Watchlist for the Nigerian Banking Industry, October 2017, any money that illegally enters the accounts linked to the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) of any institution’s account holders through suspicious debits and credits should be immediately returned to where the money was originally domiciled.
In its affidavit in support, Muhideen Olujinmi, Unit Head of the Investigation and Fraud Management Unit, Taj Bank Limited, deposed that following a system glitch in Taj Bank’s server, certain individuals took advantage and unlawfully initiated multiple successful debit transactions and withdrew and transferred amounts of money from the accounts of the 2nd to 7th Plaintiffs into several accounts domiciled with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Respondents. TAJ Bank subsequently asked the court to order FairMoney, Opay, and PalmPay to reverse and refund the sum of N139,630,000.00 wrongfully debited from six of its customers’ accounts due to its system glitch.
Ruling on the motion ex parte on July 26, 2024, Justice Peter Lifu granted the interim request from TAJ Bank, stating that the freezing order would be pending the hearing and determination of the motion. As requested by TAJ, the judge also directed the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Respondents to disclose on oath to the Court within 7 days of service of the order the amounts standing in the credit of the identified account holders of their institution.
