A legal battle is ongoing as Lotus Bank Limited seeks to recover ₦1.5 billion allegedly diverted from its system by one of its officials, according to reports by The Witness.
Court documents filed before the Federal High Court in Lagos revealed that the bank uncovered the alleged fraud following an internal review conducted between January 2023 and May 2024, later extended to February 2026. The affidavit was sworn by Sunday Gbadebo, a fraud investigation officer with the bank.
The bank accused Abdulkarim Arome Mohammed, a staff member in the Financial Control Department, of allegedly abusing his system access privileges to fraudulently allocate customer profits into unauthorized accounts.
According to the lender, the allegedly diverted funds, amounting to ₦1,552,130,998.85, were traced to several accounts spread across 22 financial institutions and linked to three individuals.
Lotus Bank explained that suspicious Mudarabah profit payments triggered the investigation. The bank described Mudarabah deposits as the net average balance of savings or term deposits standing in the bank’s books at the end of each month.
The lender further alleged that some beneficiary accounts belonged to Mohammed’s wife, Khadijah Aliyu Shuaib, said to be a FINCO officer involved in advising on profit distribution, alongside Peter Daniel and Emmas Ocheja Odogwu.
The incident, which reportedly occurred in May 2024, remains before the court as additional defendants continue to be added to the suit in an effort to recover the funds. The latest defendant was reportedly joined in February 2026.
The matter has been adjourned until June 16, 2026.
Lotus Bank commenced commercial banking operations in 2021 and is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
