The Nigerian police are seeking to arrest 601 account holders regarding a technical glitch that cost fintech company Flutterwave N21.2 billion ($21.2 million) in erroneous transactions last year. 

Over 9,663 unauthorised transactions were carried by point-of-sale merchants amounting to billions of naira after Flutterwave suffered a glitch, which “allowed agents to conduct transactions in excess of their available balance” between October 12 and 13, 2023.

Following the incident, the company immediately launched several measures to recover the stolen money and control the situation by reporting to the police and contacting Wema Bank and other banks to stop processing transactions on settlement accounts.

These actions enabled Flutterwave to preserve N7.2 billion.

According to the police, they have been able to make arrests following their investigations into bank accounts and phone numbers of the 814 Flutterwave point-of-sale merchants involved in the nearly 10,000 unauthorised transactions.

But the police are now set to arrest another 601 account holders suspected to have received proceeds from the glitch. 

Authorities said the point-of-sale merchants exploited the breach by sending huge sums of money to family, friends and relatives.

The police also asked the court for a court order directing Polaris Bank, Sparkle Microfinance Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Standard Chartered Bank, Union Bank, Unity Bank and Wema Bank to freeze accounts of individuals who benefited from the breach. 

In February, Flutterwave announced that it had discovered a technical glitch on its platform that led to unauthorised transactions.