PalmPay issues arrest warnings to media outlets over KudiWave reports

A new phase has emerged in the dispute involving PalmPay Limited and KudiWave Technologies Limited, with media organisations that reported developments in the matter said to have received messages from PalmPay warning of possible arrest and demanding the removal of published stories.

The warnings followed media coverage of two major developments in the dispute. The first concerned the movement of N750,369,439.04 from KudiWave’s account by PalmPay. The second involved PalmPay’s reported position that KudiWave’s address and the ownership of the account were unknown, a claim KudiWave later challenged with documents and evidence of previous dealings between both companies.

One of the major pieces of evidence presented by KudiWave was a PalmPay correspondence dated July 28, which expressly identified KudiWave Technologies Limited and Account No. 8889232516. In the same letter, PalmPay asked the Nigeria Police Force to transfer N750,369,439.04, which it described as standing in a designated Police Recovery Account, back to KudiWave Technologies Limited’s account.

The correspondence therefore identified KudiWave by name, specified the account number linked to the company and directed that the disputed funds be returned to that same account, raising questions over PalmPay’s reported position that the account ownership was unknown. KudiWave also presented evidence of an earlier physical engagement between both companies. It provided a photograph from a March visit to its Lagos headquarters involving three top PalmPay officials whom KudiWave described as Chinese and accompanied by a Nigerian police escort.

Media organisations reported these materials as part of their continuing coverage of the dispute. It was after this round of reporting that some publishers reportedly began receiving messages from PalmPay demanding that the stories be removed and warning of possible arrest if the publications remained online. The reports themselves stemmed from a legal and financial dispute between PalmPay and KudiWave, which had already reached the Federal High Court in Lagos.

A June 29 court order had affected KudiWave’s funds, prompting the company to file an application on July 3 seeking to have the order set aside and its execution stayed. Justice Ibrahim Ahmad Kala heard the application on July 13 and reserved his decision.

Two days after that hearing, KudiWave’s account records showed that PalmPay removed N750,369,439.04 from the account under the narration “Judicial Adjustment” while the matter was still awaiting the court’s ruling, claiming that the transaction was carried out pursuant to the June 29 order and rejecting suggestions that the transfer fell outside the authority of that order.

The court eventually ruled on July 22, vacating the June 29 order and directing that restrictions placed on KudiWave’s account be removed. PalmPay’s July 28 letter followed that ruling, identifying KudiWave and its account before requesting that N750,369,439.04 be returned to the company. The funds, however, were not returned, and the dispute continued.

The latest reported warnings to publishers have now moved part of the attention from the financial dispute itself to the treatment of media organisations covering it. With the reports arising from developments already connected to the dispute, the takedown demands have raised fresh concerns over why PalmPay is seeking the removal of the coverage instead of resolving the underlying matter that led to the reports in the first place.