The Federal High Court in Abuja has lifted freezing orders placed on the bank accounts and properties of four defendants linked to an alleged \u20a621.2 billion loss arising from a system glitch on the Flutterwave payment platform in 2023.<\/p>\n
Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling delivered on Monday, set aside the ex parte order issued on June 2, 2026, in Suit No. FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1004\/2026, along with all consequential directives arising from it.<\/p>\n
The court also discharged all freezing orders, liens, Post-No-Debit instructions and other restrictions imposed on the accounts and properties of the first to fourth defendants\/applicants pursuant to the June 2 order.<\/p>\n
The ruling followed an application by the four defendants, through their legal team led by A.O. Ochogwu of Lexlaw Solicitors & Attorneys, seeking to vacate the freezing order.<\/p>\n
The defendants argued that the police had failed to disclose to Justice Nwite that a court of coordinate jurisdiction had previously lifted similar restrictions imposed on their accounts and properties.<\/p>\n
According to the applicants, an earlier order issued on April 2, 2026, had discharged the restrictions and remained valid because it had neither been set aside nor successfully challenged.<\/p>\n
They consequently accused the police of material non-disclosure, abuse of court process and forum shopping for approaching another court for substantially similar freezing orders without disclosing the earlier ruling.<\/p>\n
Justice Nwite agreed with the applicants, holding that the failure to disclose the April 2 order was material to the court\u2019s exercise of discretion when granting the subsequent ex parte application.<\/p>\n
The judge held that an order obtained on the basis of materially incomplete facts should not remain in force once the omission is brought to the court\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court therefore finds that the failure to disclose the order of 2nd April 2026, which had discharged and lifted the restrictions affecting the Applicants\u2019 accounts, constituted a material non-disclosure in the circumstances of the ex parte application,\u201d Justice Nwite held.<\/p>\n
He added that the subsequent procurement of substantially similar restrictions without first disclosing and addressing the earlier order could not be allowed to stand.<\/p>\n
The court therefore resolved the issue in favour of the first to fourth defendants\/applicants.<\/p>\n
Justice Nwite declared that the June 2, 2026, ex parte order, together with all consequential directives issued pursuant to it, was \u201cset aside and vacated.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further ordered that every freezing order, restriction, lien, Post-No-Debit instruction or other encumbrance imposed on the applicants\u2019 accounts or properties pursuant to the order be discharged.<\/p>\n
The underlying dispute dates back to October 2023, when a system glitch allegedly resulted in thousands of erroneous transactions through the Flutterwave Point of Sale platform.<\/p>\n
Data attributed to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System indicated that 9,633 erroneous transactions were carried out on October 12 and 13, 2023, by 814 Flutterwave POS agents during the incident.<\/p>\n
Flutterwave\u2019s total exposure was reportedly estimated at about \u20a621.2 billion.<\/p>\n
Following the incident, Flutterwave reportedly worked with banks to restrict accounts connected to the transactions and was able to preserve approximately \u20a67.2 billion.<\/p>\n
The Inspector-General of Police subsequently commenced investigations into the incident, with police operatives reportedly arresting some POS agents suspected of involvement in the allegedly fraudulent withdrawals.<\/p>\n
In a counter-affidavit filed before Justice Nwite, the police maintained that the four defendants were among individuals whose accounts received substantial volumes of funds arising from the incident.<\/p>\n
The applicants, however, challenged the continued freezing of their accounts, relying on the earlier order that had lifted the restrictions.<\/p>\n
Their lawyers argued that the police ought to have disclosed and addressed the April 2 order before seeking another ex parte restriction against them.<\/p>\n
The latest ruling did not determine whether the four defendants participated in fraudulent transactions arising from the 2023 system glitch. Instead, the court\u2019s decision focused on the validity of the June 2 freezing order and the police\u2019s failure to disclose the earlier April 2 order when seeking the subsequent ex parte relief.<\/p>\n
The \u20a621.2 billion Flutterwave incident is among several cases in recent years involving alleged system glitches, unauthorised transactions and fraud within Nigeria\u2019s banking and fintech ecosystem.<\/p>\n
In another recent case, the Federal High Court in Abuja on August 17, 2026, ordered 12 commercial banks and six fintech platforms to place Post-No-Debit restrictions on about 69 accounts allegedly linked to \u20a61.3 billion in unauthorised credit transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal High Court in Abuja has lifted freezing orders placed on the bank accounts and properties of four defendants linked to an alleged \u20a621.2 billion loss arising from a system glitch on the Flutterwave payment platform in 2023. Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling delivered on Monday, set aside the ex parte order issued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":48976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t