Opay Digital Service Limited, one of the fintech mobile money firms operating in Nigeria, has been dragged before a Federal High Court, Lagos, by one of its numerous clients, over alleged unlawful freezing of his account.
The alleged illegal act, the applicant in the suit, Moses King, claimed to have led to his father’s death.
The applicant, King, instituted the suit against Opay Digital Service Limited via a fundamental rights enforcement Procedure Rule 2009, which is pursuant to Section 46(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of the NIGERIA 1999.
The applicant’s suit marked FHC/L/CS/178/2026, filed by his lawyer, Barrister Olalekan Ogunbunmi, is praying the court for some reliefs against the fintech firm.
The reliefs sought by the applicant includes: “a declaration that the unlawful and unauthorized freezing of the applicant’s account with account no: 8087652738 with Account Name: Moses King and Bank Name: Opay Digital Service Limited by the respondent from 17th of September, 2025 to 9th of December, 2025 without a court order or just cause is illegal, wrongful, unlawful, unconstitutional as it violates the applicants’ fundamental rights as guaranteed under section 43 and 44 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
“A declaration that the restriction placed on the applicant’s account with account no: 8087652738 with Account Name: Moses King and Bank Name: Opay Digital Service Limited by the respondent from 17th of September, 2025 to 9th of December, 2025 which led to the dead of the applicant’s father due to inability to have access to his personal savings account to pay the hospital bills of his father without a court order or just cause is illegal, wrongful, unlawful, unconstitutional as it violates the applicants’ fundamental rights as guaranteed under section 36 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
“A declaration that the action of Respondent unlawfully holding the applicant sum of N500,000, from 17th of September, 2025 to 9th of December, 2025, without any report or authority from any law enforcement agency for the purposes of the applicant’s father hospital bills, is illegal, wrongful, unlawful, and unconstitutional as it violates the applicants’ fundamental rights as guaranteed under section 34, 36, 43 and 44 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“A declaration that the action of respondent unlawfully holding of the Applicant sum of five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) from 17th of September, 2025 to 9th of December, 2025 led to the death of the Applicant’s father who was hospitalized since 10th of September, 2025 and later died in the hospital on the 15 of December, 2025.
“An order directing the respondent to render public apology to the applicant and publish same in two national newspapers together with the payments of exemplary compensation damages in the sum of N50 million to the applicant for the unlawful freezing of his personal saving account without court order therefore an inhuman treatment melted out to that led to the death of his father.”
To establishing that the online banking firm breached his rights, the applicant supports his suit with a 23-paragraph affidavit wherein he made the following aveerments: “that I am a trader and I have been carrying on my legitimate business and transacting with my personal account domiciled with Opay Digital services with account No: 8087652738 for a very long time without controversy.
“That on the 17th of September, 2025, I noticed I was unable to effect transactions on my personal savings account domiciled with the respondent, immediately I contacted the customer service of my bank (Opay Digital Service Limited) to report to them of my inability to carry out transactions on my account. And that after the agent of the Opay Digital Service Limited running a check through my account, found out that the Post No Debit/Lien has been placed on my personal savings account domiciled with the respondent without a court order.
“That the agent of Opay Digital Service Limited did not give me any reason for freezing my account but only informed me that the only way I can have access to my account is by providing a court order. And that on several occasions, I have visited the agent of the respondent to unfreeze my account or disclose any court order that authorized them to freeze my account.
“That I instructed my lawyer O. O. Ogunbunmi Esq of Petrichor Attorneys to write to the respondent for the removal of Lien/PND on my account or provide the copy of court order if there is any. And that on the 25th of November, 2025, I contacted the customer service agent via online support to request the reason for placing restriction on my account. The agent of the respondent stated there was no court order, but the restriction was based on a bank report.
“That my personal savings account was restrained from 17th of September, 2025 to 9th of December, 2025 without any valid court order or any just cause. And that the restriction placed by the respondent based-on the sum of five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) that entered into my account for the procurement of the hospital bill of my father. And that the respondent unjustly placed a lien on my personal savings account and I have no access to the money of which I was not be able to pay for the hospital bills of my father.
“That inability to have access to my personal savings account led to death of my father because I was unable to deposit and pay for my father’s hospital bills as a result of the lien placed on my account by the respondent.”
The applicant further made the following aveerments: “that I am a law-abiding citizen and I have never committed any offence known to law that warrants this unjust act done to me by the Respondent without any valid court order. And tha the transactions | have carried out with my personal account are legitimate transactions before my account was frozen and I have never engaged in any fraudulent transactions before.
“That the order placing PND on my account has affected me to the point of begging my neighbors for food. And that I have never used my bank accounts or any other person’s account to defraud or carry out any illicit dealings with any financial institutions in the country or elsewhere.
“That I urge this honourable court to grant this application so that my attempt to make legitimate ends meet will not be unjustly put on hold.”
The defendant, Opay Digital Service Limited is yet to file any response to the suit, despite being served with the applicant’s processes.
Meanwhile, Justice Daniel Osiagor has fixed March 2, for hearing of the suit.