A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered 54 banks to return over N9.3 billion that was moved illegally by hackers from an old-generation bank.
The ruling, given on April 15, 2025, came after the affected bank filed a motion following the loss of funds due to a major system breach.
The incident happened on March 23, 2025, when the bank’s core system was attacked, leading to multiple unauthorized withdrawals from customers’ accounts.
The stolen money was quickly moved into accounts in different banks across the country.
The hackers didn’t stop there—they shifted the funds from the first set of accounts into many others, making it harder to trace.
As soon as the bank noticed the crime, it contacted all the banks involved to freeze the suspicious accounts and trace the flow of money.
An investigation showed that the money was broken into parts and sent in stages to various accounts, some of which belonged to people who may not have been directly involved in the attack.
The court instructed the banks to stop all transactions on the affected accounts and start returning any available funds.
Each bank is to return only the amount that passed through their system.
The court also ordered the banks to submit the full details of these accounts—such as the account holders’ names, current balances, and where the money went.
The judge made it clear that only the stolen money is to be returned and that regular deposits made by customers should not be touched.
The stolen amount, according to the court, belongs to the bank and not the customers of the banks that received the funds.
This order is part of efforts to help the affected bank recover its losses after the cyberattack.
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