A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered 54 banks to return over N9.3 billion that hackers stole from a commercial bank in Nigeria.
Justice Deinde Dipeolu gave the order on April 15, 2025, after the affected bank filed an ex parte motion. The court also directed all the banks involved to block all accounts that received the stolen funds and begin returning the money immediately.
The judge said, “The order is only in respect of funds erroneously transferred and sums salvaged. The stolen funds belong to the plaintiff and not the customers of the respondent banks.”
According to the court documents, the theft happened on March 23, 2025, when hackers breached the bank’s core system and made unauthorized withdrawals from several customer accounts. The total amount stolen was N9,329,322,870.
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The bank said it quickly alerted all financial institutions involved and began tracking the movement of the money. Investigations showed that the hackers first transferred the stolen funds into main accounts, and then moved them to other accounts belonging to different people.
Justice Dipeolu ordered all 54 banks to provide full details of the accounts that received the stolen money. This includes account balances, names of account holders, and how much was moved from each account.
“All accounts that received any portion of the stolen money must remain frozen until the funds are fully recovered,” the court ruled.
The judge also made it clear that the order does not affect other customer deposits or unrelated transactions.