Femi Ashekun/
United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) has been sued at the Federal High Court in Lagos over allegations that it opened and operated an unauthorised corporate account in a customer’s name, through which billions of naira were allegedly transacted without the company’s knowledge or consent.
The suit, marked FHC/L/CS/775/2025, was filed by EFFDEE Nigeria Limited and its Managing Director, Mr Fouad Anthony Aquad.
The plaintiffs accuse the bank of breach of contract, negligence, breach of trust, unlawful data processing and violation of their constitutional right to privacy.
In court documents, EFFDEE Nigeria Limited stated that it has maintained only one legitimate corporate account with UBA since August 4, 2020 and never applied for or authorised the opening of any additional account in its name.
According to the Statement of Claim, the matter came to light in January 2025 when the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), during a tax investigation, contacted Aquad and requested statements for two UBA accounts allegedly belonging to the company.
One of the accounts, numbered 1023232539, was said to be entirely unknown to the company.
The plaintiffs said further checks revealed that a second account had allegedly been opened and operated in the company’s name for several years without its knowledge.
Statements allegedly obtained from the bank showed that the disputed account recorded an opening balance of N2 billion, described as a loan, and cumulative transactions exceeding N5.2 billion between 2020 and 2022.
Additional transactions running into hundreds of millions of naira were said to have occurred between January 2023 and January 2025.
EFFDEE Nigeria Limited maintained that neither of its two directors applied for the account, signed any mandate, submitted identity documents, passed a board resolution, or authorised any loan or transaction connected to it.
The plaintiffs further alleged that the existence of the disputed account exposed Aquad to law enforcement scrutiny.
According to the suit, he was invited, detained, fingerprinted and questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in August and September 2024 over transactions and a N2 billion facility allegedly linked to the account, despite his insistence that he had no knowledge of it.
In their filings, the plaintiffs accused UBA of unlawfully using confidential corporate and personal banking information obtained from the company’s legitimate account to open and operate the second account.
They alleged that identities were cloned, signatures and corporate resolutions forged, and mandatory Know Your Customer and anti-money laundering procedures ignored.
They also claimed that while the disputed account allegedly operated without interruption, the bank restricted the company’s legitimate account in September 2024 on the grounds of incomplete documentation, a development they described as suspicious and indicative of internal control failures.
The suit alleged violations of several laws and regulations, including the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, Central Bank of Nigeria regulations, the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act.
The plaintiffs also contend that the bank’s actions amounted to an unlawful interference with their right to privacy under Section 37 of the Constitution.
EFFDEE Nigeria Limited and Aquad are asking the court to declare the opening and operation of the disputed account unlawful and to award damages running into billions of naira, including N3 billion in aggravated damages.
They are also seeking perpetual injunctions restraining the bank from further operating the account or using their corporate and personal data.
The plaintiffs further alleged that despite repeated correspondence and a pre-action notice issued through their lawyers, the bank failed to provide a satisfactory explanation or take decisive remedial action.
UBA Plc has denied the allegations and urged the court to dismiss the suit.
At the last hearing, UBA’s counsel, Mr B. Nwokedi, informed the court that his client intended to defend the action but was currently outside the jurisdiction.
He consequently applied for an adjournment, which the court granted.
The case has been adjourned to a later date for continuation of proceedings.
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