A fintech company, Kudiwave Technologies Limited, has asked the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, to investigate the transfer of N750.3m from its PalmPay account to a police-controlled account, alleging that the transaction took place before a court ruling that lifted restrictions on its funds.
The company, through its solicitor, Tony Eseigbe & Co., made the request in a petition dated September 14, 2026. It questioned the handling of the money by the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Ikoyi, Lagos, and challenged the police’s claim that the funds were connected to an alleged “round-tripping” scheme involving several companies.
Kudiwave said it received the money from Nexall Technologies Limited in a legitimate commercial transaction involving digital assets. It disputed the suggestion that the entire sum represented proceeds of an alleged transaction involving United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA).
The dispute has also reached the Lagos State High Court, where PalmPay Limited is seeking to restrain Kudiwave from making or circulating public statements about the transfer.
Company challenges tracing of N750m
Kudiwave said the funds transferred to its PalmPay account came from Nexall in exchange for digital-asset value. It maintained that the available transaction records did not support the allegation that the money was passed through a chain of companies as part of a fraudulent scheme.
The company cited details of transactions conducted by Kredilink Technologies Limited, Master Solution Concept Limited and other businesses to support its position.
The petition quoted Kredilink founder, Opeyemi Dairo, as saying he was introduced to Master Solution on March 5, 2026. Master Solution had presented itself as a merchant dealing with Nomba Bank and needing services for converting traditional currency into digital assets.
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A Know-Your-Business process was completed, followed by a test transaction worth $3,556.18 before further dealings began.
Nexall’s Operations Lead and co-founder, Ayandoye Pelumi Olawale, was also quoted as saying that Kudiwave requested liquidity from Nexall on March 28, 2026, in exchange for USDT, a digital currency linked to the value of the United States dollar.
The petition stated that Nexall obtained naira from several independent sources, including N200m from Kredilink through a Nom Bank MFB account.
Other identified payments into Nexall’s account that day included N199.8m from Fintrix Technologies Limited, N282.4m from Sturdi-Steel Nigeria Limited and N101,697,888 from GreatRex Global Concepts.
The listed payments totalled N783,897,888. Kudiwave said the N200m from Kredilink was only one of several payments Nexall received that day.
It claimed that Nexall subsequently sent N250m in three separate transactions, totalling N750m, to Kudiwave’s PalmPay account.
Kudiwave questioned why the entire N750m was treated as proceeds of an alleged UBA-related transaction when only N100m from Kredilink’s N200m payment was reportedly flagged.
The company also referred to a separate Federal High Court case, United Bank for Africa Plc v Master Solution Concept Limited & 21 Ors, marked FHC/L/CS/680/2026.
The case involved an order dated April 1, 2026, concerning an alleged erroneous transfer of N713,913,076.32. Kudiwave stressed that neither it nor Nexall was a defendant in that suit and that the N713.9m mentioned in the case was different from the N750m transferred to its PalmPay account.
Court orders and competing claims
Kudiwave alleged that its money was transferred to a Police Recovery Account even after a court order removed restrictions on its account.
The petition cited a July 28, 2026, letter from PalmPay to the SFU. In the letter, PalmPay reportedly informed the police that Justice Kala of the Federal High Court had, on July 22, set aside the June 29 orders directing the reversal of funds from Kudiwave’s account.
The court also ordered the removal of all restrictions on the account, the petition said.
PalmPay subsequently requested the return of N750,369,439.04 from the Police Recovery Account to Kudiwave’s PalmPay account.
However, PalmPay has disputed Kudiwave’s account of the court proceedings. The company maintains that the June 29 order was still in force when the funds were transferred.
Counsel to Kudiwave, Prince Kalu, alleged that the N750m was transferred on July 15, before the court delivered its ruling on July 22.
He further claimed that the money was sent to a PalmPay business account with Access Bank instead of the Police Exhibit Account specified in the June 29 order.
“The order of June 29 said, ‘Move this money from the account of Kudiwave to Police Exhibit Account,’ with their account number. And what they did on July 15 was to move the money to their own business account in Access Bank,” Kalu said.
He alleged that a former Commissioner of Police attached to the SFU collected the dollar equivalent of N5m from him and promised to lift a restriction preventing withdrawals from Kudiwave’s account. The allegation has not been independently established.
Kalu said the company expected the restriction to be lifted but later learnt from PalmPay that an order had been obtained to transfer the money to a police account.
He said Kudiwave filed an application on July 3, seeking to suspend the June 29 order and have it set aside. The application was argued on July 13, with the court fixing July 22 for its ruling.
Kudiwave is asking the IGP to trace every payment, obtain the bank records of the companies involved and investigate the arrest and detention of its representatives.
Kalu said the company petitioned the police because of what he called inconsistencies in the accounts given about the money.
Meanwhile, PalmPay’s September 4, 2026, application before the Lagos State High Court seeks to prevent Kudiwave and those acting on its behalf from publishing or circulating statements about the transfer of N750,369,439.04 to the Police Recovery Account.
The application was filed under the Lagos State High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2019. PalmPay is represented by Dr Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, alongside other lawyers from S.P.A. Ajibade & Co.
The two companies are now presenting competing accounts of the transfer, with Kudiwave seeking a police investigation and PalmPay asking the court to restrict public statements about the transaction.
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