Court Orders Final Forfeiture of N1.2bn Stolen From Sterling Bank

Justice D.I.Dipeolu of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N1,292,798,746.81 (One Billion, Two Hundred and Ninety-two Million, Seven Hundred and Ninety-eight Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty-six Naira, Eighty-one Kobo) to the Federal Government of Nigeria in favour of Sterling Bank Plc.

The money had been criminally withdrawn by some individuals owing to a system glitch experienced by Sterling Bank Plc.

Upon receipt of a petition received by the Commission from the bank alleging a N2.5bn theft, investigation led to the identification and tracing of the theft of funds to various accounts.

The sums sought to be forfeited were domiciled in M Sharif Inter-Trading and Marketing Company Ltd.’s UBA account (N900,00,000); Mustapha Abubakar’s UBA account ( N255,872,842.84); Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s UBA account (N12,195,093); Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s Jaiz Bank (N41,119,917.13); Abubakar Mustapha Sharif’s First Bank account (N19,069,567.73) and Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s Sterling Imal (the alternative bank account (N30,850,158.12).

The Judge gave the order, following a motion on notice dated January 8, 2025 and filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, through its counsel, Hannatu U. KofarNaisa.

The court had, on March 12 , 2025, granted an interim forfeiture order of the funds and also directed the publication of the same in a national newspaper for any interested party to show cause why the money should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government.

Moving the motion for the final forfeiture order, counsel to the EFCC told the court that the money was reasonably suspected to have been proceeds of unlawful activities.

KofarNaisa also told court that the Commission had published the interim forfeiture order in The Punch newspaper of March 24, 2025 for any interested party to show cause why the final order of forfeiture should not be made in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Justice Dipeolu , after listening to the submissions by KofarNaisa , held that “having gone through the motion and attachments, I find the application meritorious and same is accordingly granted.”

Consequently, the Judge ordered the final forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government of Nigeria in favour of Sterling Bank Plc.