LAGOS JUNE 14TH (NEWSRANGERS)-A businessman, Mr. Suleiman Mohammed Dikwa, has filed a lawsuit against Opay Digital Services Limited at a High Court of Justice in Jos, Plateau State over an alleged unlawful freezing of his account and unauthorised withdrawal of funds.
He is seeking N30 million in damages in addition to other reliefs.
In the suit, Dikwa, through his counsel, F.M. Pukuma of S.T. Panwal & Co told the court that Opay had frozen his account and deducted a sum of N28,592.92 on April 19, 2024 allegedly on a court order from a Sharia Court in Kaduna State. He contended that the deduction was carried out without his knowledge or consent, thereby violating his rights as a customer.
Dikwa said that he only got to know about it when he noticed the unauthorised deduction and was unable to access his account. Worried that there might be a security breach, he visited a Point of Sale (POS) terminal, where he discovered that his account had been frozen.
He subsequently visited Opay’s office in Dadin Kowa, Jos South Local Government Area where he was informed that the freeze was executed pursuant to the Sharia Court order.
However, after personally investigating the claim at the said Sharia Court, Dikwa said he discovered that there was no such order.
Despite notifying Opay of his findings and making repeated visits to its Jos office, the freeze on his account was not lifted, and the deducted amount was not refunded.
In a letter dated December 31, 2024, Opay acknowledged that the transaction was linked to a mistaken transfer of N100,000 by one Mutiu Ajasa Adeniyi. The company claimed the funds were withdrawn to reverse the erroneous credit.
While Opay confirmed deducting N100,000 from the claimant’s account, Dikwa insists that an additional N28,592.92 remains unaccounted for. According to him, an audit report issued by the company in January 2025 promised that the account would soon be unfrozen, but no action has been taken as of the date the suit was filed on February 3, 2025.
The Claimant argued that Opay acted in negligence and breached its fiduciary duty to him as a customer.
He maintained that a banker-customer relationship falls under the jurisdiction of the State High Court or the Federal Capital Territory High Court, and not a Sharia Court.
He is now asking the court to declare Opay’s actions as unlawful, and to order the reversal of the N28,592.92 into his account. He has also asked the court to mandate the unfreezing of the said account, compel the company to pay N30 million as general and exemplary damages, refund N1 million in legal fees incurred in prosecuting the matter, and impose a 10 percent interest on the judgment sum until final liquidation.
ThisDay
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