Lotus Bank Limited has filed a lawsuit against 45 Nigerian banks before the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking to recover ₦1.13 billion allegedly lost due to a system failure on its E-Bills Pay platform.
In a motion on notice, the bank explained that the incident occurred on July 20, 2024, following a “rollback fix” on its payment system, which triggered a “system glitch.” The malfunction reportedly enabled 718 customers to make unauthorized transfers and withdrawals even without sufficient funds in their accounts.
According to the bank, the affected customers moved the funds into accounts domiciled with the 45 defendant banks, including PalmPay, Moniepoint, OPay, GTBank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, First Bank, Wema Bank, Sterling Bank, Kuda, and FairMoney, among others.
Lotus Bank, citing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines — particularly Circulars BPS/FIRGEN/CIR/02/004 (2015) and BPS/FIRGEN/CIR/05/011 (2018) — asked the court to determine whether the defendant banks are obligated to place a lien on accounts that received the disputed funds and to refund any available amounts to Lotus Bank.
The bank also urged the court to declare that the 45 banks have a statutory duty to protect the financial system from fraud and to act immediately when such anomalies occur. It is seeking an order compelling the defendants to reverse and refund the total sum of ₦1,133,808,604.31 or any recoverable portion thereof.
In an affidavit deposed to by Gbenga Ojerinde, a Fraud Investigation Officer at Lotus Bank, the institution stated that the glitch allowed multiple transfers to other banks without corresponding debits. The matter, he said, was promptly reported to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
Ojerinde emphasized that the lawsuit aims to prevent the affected customers from “unjust enrichment” and ensure the recovery of funds wrongly retained in other banks.
Justice Daniel Osiagor has adjourned the case to December 2025 for further hearing.
