After FIJ’s Intervention, OPay Complies With Court Order, Lifts Restriction on Customer’s N3m
OPay, a digital banking platform, has complied with an Osun State High Court order directing it to unlock an account belonging to Muhammed Jamiu Abass, a customer. OPay blocked Abass’ account on July 17 after he received a N3 million payment.
Abass, who was in Saudi Arabia at the time, was commissioned to use the money to help build a mosque in Nigeria. But OPay immediately placed a restriction on his account because the transaction looked suspicious.
OPay then instructed Abass to upload certain documents to verify his identity and explain the source of the money. The OPay app repeatedly rejected his efforts to meet these documentation instructions.
Frustrated, the customer filed a fundamental rights enforcement lawsuit through Dhikirullahi Habeeb Kola, his brother who was in Nigeria, before the court.
Without any representation from OPay despite being served hearing notices and court proceedings, the Justice F.A. Sodamade-led High Court sitting in Iwo delivered its judgment on December 12, directing the digital bank to unblock the account and pay Abass N500,000 in damages.
“Despite the service on the respondent [OPay] of this application and hearing notices, there was no reaction from the respondent. In the absence of any form of reaction from the respondent, there is nothing to put on the other side of the divide. What is left for this court’s consideration is the case of the applicant and if found credible, the court will then act upon same,” the judge wrote.
The court declared the unilateral action of OPay of placing a restriction on the account without a court order illegal and contrary to Section 44 (1) of the 1999 Constitution.
“The words of Section 44 (1) of the 1999 Constitution forbids taking possession of property except in the manner and for the purposes prescribed by law – Freezing a bank account denies the owner of the account the right to the money in the account even if temporarily,” the judge stated.
“I find that the freezing of the applicant’s account without a court order amounts to a breach of the applicant’s right by the respondent. It is unlawful and unconstitutional having been done without a court order. It’s a breach of the applicant’s fundamental right to moveable property guaranteed by Section 44 (2) (k) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.”
In addition to granting all the reliefs sought by the applicant, the judge awarded N500,000 against OPay.
Following the delivery of the judgment, Tawfiq Tewogbade, Abass’ legal representative, emailed a letter dated January 16 to OPay’s Osun office, notifying it of the development and “demand full compliance with the said judgment” with minimum delay.
OPay acknowledged the email and explained that it disabled the account because the amount received through the account was unusually high and looked suspicious, according to Abdulmujeeb Tadese, a litigation secretary.
“Despite their acknowledgement of the email, they have to grant the applicant access to the funds. The same documents he was asked to upload before the institution of the court action are being requested and he has been making attempts to upload them but their app is not even allowing him to make full upload,” Tadese told FIJ on Thursday.
“Yet They insisted that he has to explain the source of the money first.”
When contacted for comment and resolution on Friday, Adeyemi Adekunle, head of marketing at OPay, said he was not aware of the case and requested a copy of the judgment.
Some hours after receiving the documents, Adekunle told FIJ that the restriction had been lifted.
“The customer had been contacted and told what to do. Now, the restriction has been removed,” the marketing head said.
“Our legal team will proceed to file an affidavit of compliance at the court.”
On Saturday, the customer confirmed that he had regained access to the funds in his account.
“Many thanks to FIJ. I can confirm that the account has been unlocked. I was able to access the account yesterday night and transferred N200,000 to someone,” said Abass.
“I was asked to upload a utility bill first to gain access before I was able to do the transaction.”
OPay was yet to pay the N500,000 damages to the customer at press time.
