The federal high court in Lagos has ordered 71 banks to place debit restrictions on accounts used to warehouse N1.3 billion fraudulently taken from some accounts domiciled in Access Bank.
Trial judge, Akintayo Aluko, gave the order following an ex parte application filed by Ifeoma E. Enyinnaya, counsel to Access Bank.
In an ex parte application filed on August 13, Access Bank told the court that on August 12, it noticed a fraud incident involving some accounts, adding that the scheme was perpetrated through its internet banking application known as “Access SME App”.
Access Bank said the sum of N1,340,425,393 was moved from customers’ accounts without authorisation to accounts domiciled with the bank and 71 other financial institutions.
“Upon resumption on 12th August 2026, the Applicant noticed a fraud incident which occurred on some accounts domiciled with the Applicant and was perpetrated through one of the Applicant’s internet banking applications known as Access SME App,” Access Bank said in the court documents.
“It was discovered upon the Applicant’s internal investigation that monies totalling N1,340,425,393.00 (One Billion, Three Hundred and Forty Million, Four Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand, Three Hundred and Ninety-Three Naira) were moved from its customers’ accounts without authorisation to several accounts domiciled with the Applicant and the 1st to 71st Respondents as listed in Exhibit Access Bank 1.”
Access Bank sought four reliefs from the court, including an order seeking that the 71 banks whose accounts benefitted from the N1.3 billion should file an affidavit of disclosure.
Aluko granted reliefs 1 to 3, while ruling that relief 4 cannot be granted because the request appears to be like a final order.
The judge adjourned the matter to August 31, 2026.