FCT: Court unfreezes four accounts allegedly linked to N21bn glitch, slams Police

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has lifted the freezing orders (Post-No-Debit) made against the bank accounts of four defendants linked to a 2023 N21 billion system glitch fraud case instituted by the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

The trial judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling on Monday, agreed with the legal team of the four defendants, led by Abbas Onoja Ochogwu of Lexlaw Solicitors & Attorneys, that the police suppressed material facts when it applied to freeze the affected accounts through an ex parte application.

The latest legal development is connected to a broader investigation and litigation involving banks and financial institutions, which aimed to reverse billions of naira allegedly withdrawn fraudulently from a Flutterwave account at Wema Bank.

The withdrawals reportedly occurred due to a system glitch between October 12 and 13, 2023, according to court documents sighted by newsmen in Abuja.

However, the four affected defendants, through their lawyers, filed a motion on notice, urging the court to vacate the ex parte order on the grounds of non-disclosure by the police as required by law, stressing that a similar court of coordinate jurisdiction had discharged the restrictions imposed on them.

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Ruling on the matter, Justice Nwite held that orders made by a court are not permitted to stand where it is demonstrated that judicial discretion was exercised on a materially incomplete factual foundation.

The judge said, the circumstances disclosed in the present case, as highlighted by the defendants, justified the exercise of the court’s jurisdiction in reversing its previous orders.

“The Court therefore finds that the failure to disclose the order of 2nd April 2026, which had discharged and lifted the restrictions affecting the Applicants’ accounts, constituted a material non-disclosure in the circumstances of the ex parte application.

“The subsequent procurement of an order imposing substantially similar restrictions without first disclosing and addressing the earlier order cannot be permitted to stand,” Justice Nwite ruled and accordingly resolved the issue for determination in favour of the 1st to 4th Defendants/Applicants.

The judge ruled that, “the ex-parte order made by the Court on 2nd June 2026 in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1004/2026, together with all consequential directives issued pursuant thereto, is hereby set aside and vacated.”

Consequently, the judge ordered that all freezing orders, restrictions, Post-No-Debit instructions or other encumbrances imposed upon the accounts or properties of the 1st to 4th Defendants/Applicants pursuant to the said Order of 2nd June 2026 be discharged and set aside.

According to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), 9,633 erroneous transactions were conducted on the Flutterwave POS platform on October 12 and 13, 2023, by 814 Flutterwave POS agents during the system glitch.

According to NIBSS, Flutterwave’s total exposure at the time was estimated at N21.2 billion. However, Flutterwave worked with banks to restrict the affected accounts, successfully preserving N7.2 billion.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) had noted that his team eventually arrested some suspected POS agents involved in the fraudulent activities and commenced investigations and litigation against the suspects.

Before Justice Nwite, the police, through a counter-affidavit, had maintained that the four respondents “are among those whose account receive volumes of money from the incident that happened on the Flutterwave platform.”

However, the respondents’ lawyers argued in their processes that an earlier order unfreezing their accounts, as issued by Justice Liman, remained “valid” and had not been appealed against and accused the police team of engaging in a grave abuse of judicial process and forum shopping.