By The Merit Newspaper
PalmPay Limited has reportedly sent messages to media outlets covering its ongoing dispute with KudiWave Technologies Limited, demanding that published reports be taken down and warning of possible arrest if the stories remain online.
The messages followed a series of reports examining the movement of N750,369,439.04 from KudiWave’s PalmPay account and subsequent developments surrounding the dispute. The publications also covered PalmPay’s reported position that KudiWave’s address and the ownership of the account were unknown, as well as evidence later presented by KudiWave to challenge that position.
The matter first attracted wider media attention after questions emerged over the N750.37 million moved from KudiWave’s account while restrictions remained on it.
KudiWave had already filed an application before the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to set aside a June 29 order affecting the funds and stay its execution. Justice Ibrahim Ahmad Kala heard the application on July 13 and reserved his decision.
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KudiWave’s account records show that PalmPay removed N750,369,439.04 from the account on July 15 under the narration “Judicial Adjustment” while the court’s ruling was still pending. PalmPay, however, has maintained that the transaction was carried out pursuant to the June 29 court order, disputing any suggestion that it acted outside the authority of that order.
The matter remained before the court until July 22, when Justice Ibrahim Ahmad Kala set aside, vacated and discharged the June 29 order and directed that restrictions on KudiWave’s account be removed.
PalmPay later wrote to the Police on July 28, requesting that N750,369,439.04 described in the correspondence as standing in a designated Police Recovery Account be transferred back to KudiWave Technologies Limited’s PalmPay account.
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The dispute later took another turn when PalmPay reportedly stated that KudiWave’s address and the ownership of the account were unknown. In response to that position, KudiWave presented documents identifying the company and Account No. 8889232516, alongside evidence of previous dealings between both parties.
It also produced a photograph from a March 18 visit to its Lagos headquarters involving three top PalmPay officials, whom KudiWave described as Chinese and accompanied by a Nigerian police escort.
Media organisations subsequently reported those materials as part of the continuing coverage.
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Following those publications, some of the outlets involved have received demands attributed to PalmPay asking that the reports be taken down. The communications also included warnings of possible arrest if the publications were not removed.
The development has introduced a separate issue into a dispute that had largely focused on the movement of the funds, the court proceedings and questions surrounding the account, while also raising concerns over why PalmPay is demanding that media outlets remove the reports instead of directly addressing and resolving the issues that led to the coverage in the first place.
