Court urged to commit to prison MD of seven commercial banks for contempt

Federal High Court in Lagos

Akin Kuponiyi

 

A Limited liability company, Pro International Concept, has filed an application before a Federal High Court in Lagos  seeking the following order of the court:

An order committing MR MORUF ABIOLA OSENI, Managing Director, Wema Bank Plc ( 2nd Respondent); MR BABATUNDE OLOFIN Managing Director, Moniepoint Microfinance Bank (3rd Respondent),  MR MUSTY MUSTAPHA, Managing Director Kuda Microfinance Bank (21st Respondent), MR HENRY OBIEKEA, Managing Director Fairmoney Microfinance Bank (22nd Respondent) ,MR CHIKA NWOSU Managing Director Palmpay Limited (23rd Respondent), and MR DAUDU   GOTRING WURITKA, Managing Director Opay Digital Service Limited (24th Respondent) for contempt of Court for their wilful disobedience to the Ex-Orders of the Honourable Court made on the 21st November, 2025.

An order directing the aforesaid persons to appear before this Honourable court to show cause why they should not be committed to prison instanter for their wilful acts of disobedience to the aforesaid.

Orders of the court

An order committing the aforesaid Persons to prison instanter for  wilful disobedience of the aforesaid Orders of this Honourable Court

And such further or other orders as the Honourable Court may deem fit, to make in the circumstances.

According to an affidavit in support of committal sworn to by a litigation manager, Omotayo Adebayo, in the Law firm of Bayo Omotubora and filed before the court on behalf of the company by a Lagos lawye,r Prince Bayo Omotubora, the deponent avers that the company kept a current operational account with a commercial bank.

As part of the opening of the account, the email address submitted with other requirements was: Charlie.falahah@gmail.com, but upon completion of the account opening procedure, the email address was wrongly documented by the bank as; Charlie.falahan@gmail.com. The last letter “h” was wrongly written as letter “n”.

The company repeatedly requested that the e-mail address be corrected, but the bank did not oblige and as a result of this the company decided to leave the e-mail address and it used it to receive messages.  The e-mail address was used to hack the company account

‘The Appitcant’s aforesaid account was hacked on the 5th of September, 2024, and a whopping sum of N95,000 O00 (Ninety-five Million Naira) was fraudulently taken out of the account, and the said sum was broken into four and transferred into four accounts domiciled in WEMA bank

The money was, in turn, transferred in various sums in tranches into the accounts domiciled in nine other banks.

Immediately, the account of the company was hacked on the said 5th day of September, 2024, and the said sum of N95 Million was moved out of the account. The Applicant quickly alerted the account officer, who immediately sent out “Block and Recall of Fraudulent Transactions IFO PRO

International concept messages to the various fraud desks of the 28 financial institutions listed before the court as respondents.

The fraud desks of the respondents promised to freeze the suspected accounts of the  Respondents for 72 hours and required a court order to sustain the freeze beyond 72 hours.

The company sought and obtained a Court Order from a District Court sitting at Ngararaba Gurku, Nasarawa State on the 9th September, 2024 to enable the Respondents to hold on to the frozen funds beyond the 72 hours administratively as promised and the Order was served on the Respondents.

The company later instituted this suit In the Court and on the 21st  November, 2024 the Court graciously granted  Orders directing that the salvaged sums In the various accounts of the  Respondents with be reversed to the company’s account and the multiple accounts of the respondents lined for further investigations, and the Court’s Orders and all the originating processes and Motion on Notice were duly served on the Respondents by the the balliff of the  Court.

However, the directing minds of their organisations refused to reverse the company’s money frozen in their banks.

The company no longer has other option than to seek compliance with the committed proceedings herein initiated. The company filed FORM 48 and caused the same to be served on the Respondents, and notwithstanding the service, the said respondents did not respond. .

It is interest of Justice to accede to this application.