Court orders final forfeiture of N1.2bn stolen from Sterling Bank

The Federal High Court sitting in the Ikoyi, area of Lagos State has ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N1,292,798,746.81 to the Federal Government in favour of Sterling Bank Plc.

The money had been criminally withdrawn by some individuals owing to a system glitch experienced by Sterling Bank.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed that upon receipt of a petition received from the bank alleging a N2.5 billion theft, an investigation led to the identification and tracing of the theft of funds to various accounts.

The sums sought to be forfeited were domiciled in M Sharif Inter-Trading and Marketing Company Ltd.’s UBA account (N900,00,000); Mustapha Abubakar’s UBA account (N255,872,842.84); Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s UBA account (N12,195,093); Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s Jaiz Bank (N41,119,917.13); Abubakar Mustapha Sharif’s First Bank account (N19,069,567.73); and Mustapha Sharif Abubakar’s Sterling Imal (The alternative bank account (N30,850,158.12).

However, the presiding judge, Justice D.I. Dipeolu, on Friday, May 9, ordered the final forfeiture of the stolen funds, following a motion on notice dated January 8, 2025, and filed by the EFCC through its counsel, Hannatu KofarNaisa.

The court had, on March 12, granted an interim forfeiture order of the funds and also directed the publication of the same in a national newspaper for any interested party to show cause why the money should not be finally forfeited to the federal government.

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Moving the motion for the final forfeiture order, the EFCC’s counsel told the court that the money was reasonably suspected to have been proceeds of unlawful activities.

KofarNaisa also told court that the EFCC had published the interim forfeiture order in a national newspaper on March 24 for any interested party to show cause why the final order of forfeiture should not be made in favour of the federal government.

Justice Dipeolu, after listening to the submissions by KofarNaisa, held that “having gone through the motion and attachments, I find the application meritorious and same is accordingly granted.”

The judge, thereafter, ordered the final forfeiture of the money to the federal government in favour of Sterling Bank.

The Star