Ajibola Olarinoye
The United Bank for Africa (UBA Plc), is currently dealing with the fallout from a major system failure that led to unauthorized withdrawals exceeding ₦180.5 million from customer accounts,.
As reported by Thewitnessngr.com, the bank, founded in 1961 and headed by Tony Elumelu, has initiated legal proceedings to recover the lost funds.
This incident follows another troubling event involving the bank. Recently, the Lagos State Police Command arrested four UBA employees for allegedly stealing £138,924 (over ₦270 million) from the domiciliary accounts of international airlines.
Investigations revealed that the suspects conspired to redirect foreign currency from corporate accounts into their personal accounts, subsequently distributing the funds to various beneficiaries.
In response to the recent system malfunction, UBA has filed a lawsuit in the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking a court order to preserve the situation and compel 15 individuals involved.
This development follows another controversy involving the bank. Just weeks ago, the Lagos State Police Command arrested four UBA officials for allegedly stealing £138,924 (over ₦270 million) from the domiciliary accounts of international airlines. Police investigations revealed that the suspects conspired to divert foreign currency from corporate accounts into their private accounts, subsequently redistributing the funds to multiple beneficiaries.
In light of a recent system glitch, UBA has filed a suit in the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking a court order to compel 15 financial institutions to promptly return ₦180,507,972.00, which the bank claims to have traced to various accounts within those institutions.
UBA asserts that these funds were fraudulently transferred during a period of system instability from March 20 to March 24, 2025.
An affidavit from Obiora Ugwuanyi, a senior official at UBA, reveals that the incident was caused by a malfunction in the bank’s system, which led to a series of unauthorized transactions.
He pointed out that these transactions impacted not only UBA’s accounts but also affected customer and recipient accounts at at least 15 other financial institutions, many of which are now named as defendants in the lawsuit.
UBA stated that it quickly initiated an internal investigation and took steps to mitigate the situation by trying to block and recover the unauthorized transfers.
In court documents, the bank claimed it “immediately made several requests to the defendants to place a No Debit on the beneficiaries’ accounts and to reverse the amounts in question, but the defendants failed, refused, or neglected to do so.”
In their response, some defendants contended that the mistakenly transferred funds from UBA had already been spent by the affected customers before the court’s order was served. The bank emphasized the urgency of the matter, warning that failing to recover the funds could pose a significant financial risk to its customers, investors, and shareholders.
UBA stated that, in addition to tracking the transactions, it has compiled comprehensive reports detailing the movement of the stolen funds, identifying the recipient accounts, and listing the amounts that have been recovered so far.
In its request to the court, UBA is seeking an order that would require the 15 financial institutions to return all traced and recovered funds, as well as an order mandating these institutions to provide the identities and account details of individuals who received and may have dispersed the funds.
The bank is requesting a mandatory injunction that requires the defendants, along with their agents, associates, officers, and any directors, to provide the court with the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and other relevant details related to the accounts of their affected customer beneficiaries.
This request pertains to cases where these accounts do not have enough funds to cover the amounts that were mistakenly transferred from the bank.
UBA was established on February 23, 1961, to acquire the operations of BFB. In 1970, UBA became the first Nigerian bank to list its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and to conduct an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
