Federal High Court Orders 71 Banks to Freeze Accounts Linked to N1.34 Billion Access Bank Cyber Fraud
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has directed seventy one banks and other financial institutions to place debit restrictions on accounts allegedly used to receive N1.34 billion fraudulently transferred from customers of Access Bank Plc, following an urgent application filed by the bank in response to a suspected cyber fraud incident. Justice Akintayo Aluko issued the order on Friday after considering an ex parte application filed by Access Bank through its legal counsel, Ifeoma E. Enyinnaya, marked FHC/LAG/MISC/1168/2026, seeking immediate judicial intervention to prevent further movement of the funds involved.
According to court documents, Access Bank informed the court that it discovered the fraud incident upon resumption of operations on August 12, 2026, prompting the bank to immediately commence an internal investigation into the matter. The bank explained that the fraudulent transactions were carried out through its internet banking platform known as the Access SME App, which was reportedly exploited to facilitate the unauthorised movement of funds from customer accounts. The affected customers were identified as MIB TXN Bullion of Aba Branch, AIICO General Insurance Company Limited, Apogee Engineering Limited and Sims Nigeria Limited, with the internal investigation establishing that a total of N1,340,425,393 had been transferred from their accounts without proper authorisation.
Court filings revealed a detailed breakdown of the funds allegedly taken from each affected customer, showing that N590,975,889 was taken from MIB TXN Bullion, N420,449,504 from AIICO General Insurance Company Limited, approximately N136 million from Apogee Engineering Limited and roughly N193 million from Sims Nigeria Limited. According to the bank, its investigation traced the diverted funds to numerous accounts held both within Access Bank itself and across seventy one other financial institutions operating within Nigeria’s banking and fintech ecosystem, prompting the decision to list all seventy one institutions as respondents in the court application.
In its motion, Access Bank asked the court to direct the respondent institutions to place Post-No-Debit restrictions on the identified accounts, along with placing the associated Bank Verification Numbers on a watchlist to prevent any further movement or dissipation of the funds until the full N1.34 billion amount is recovered, to the extent received by each individual beneficiary. The bank further requested an order compelling the affected institutions to reverse any successfully recovered funds into a designated Access Bank account established specifically to facilitate the broader recovery exercise connected to the incident.
According to the bank’s affidavit, it had already taken proactive steps prior to approaching the court, stating that it immediately contacted all seventy one respondent institutions to formally notify them of the alleged fraud and request that the affected funds be preserved while relevant account details were supplied to support its ongoing investigation. Access Bank disclosed that several of the respondent institutions had already voluntarily placed post-no-debit restrictions on some of the affected accounts even before the court order was issued, though the bank maintained that formal judicial backing remained necessary to ensure these restrictions could be properly sustained and enforced across all identified accounts throughout the course of the investigation and eventual recovery process.
The incident adds to a growing list of cyber fraud cases affecting Nigeria’s banking sector in recent years, with financial institutions increasingly turning to the courts for urgent intervention to trace and recover funds diverted through unauthorised digital transactions. As investigations into the incident continue, further updates are expected regarding the recovery of funds and any additional legal action that may arise from the case as authorities work to establish the full circumstances surrounding the security breach.
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