A federal high court in Abuja has ordered a forfeiture of funds and freezing of account domiciled in 19 Banks across Nigeria not covered by Biometric Verification Number, BVN.
Justice Nnamdi O. Dimgba gave the order following the
application by the Attorney General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice.
The order covers individuals, corporate bodies and government agencies without BVN.
The banks are Access Bank, Citi Bank, Diamond Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank, First City Monument Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Skye Bank, Stanbic Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, United Bank for Africa, UBA, Unity Bank, Wema Bank, Zenith Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria.
Upon the Motion Ex-parte deposed to by Usman Dakas in suit number C42/33 and after hearing A.D. Tyoden for the Applicant, the judge ordered the 19 banks to file an affidavit of disclosure before the court deposed to by the Chief Compliance Officer of all accounts of those the orders are directed to.
Details expected are: the names of the accounts, account numbers, outstanding balances, domiciliary accounts and the branch/location where the accounts without BVN are domiciled.
Justice Dimgba made a freezing order by stopping all outward payments, operations or transactions in respect of accounts pending the determination of the suit.
He also gave an interim order appointing a Bank Examiner from the Central Bank of Nigeria to examine the books of any bank that fail to comply with the order.
He finally made an order directing the advertisements of the accounts without BVN for any interested person to claim the ownership within 14 days to show reasons why the proceeds of the said accounts will not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government. Below is a copy of the court judgement.
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