#EndBadGovernance Protest: Court Freezes 32 Bank Accounts

The bank accounts of 32 individuals and companies linked to the 10-day nationwide #EndBadGovernance and hunger protest have been frozen by a Federal High Court in Abuja pending Police investigation and prosecution of the case.

In a ruling on an ex-parte motion brought before it by Ibrahim Mohammed, counsel for the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the Court also ordered the banks to apprehend the account holders or any person transacting business on the said accounts.

Presided over by Justice Emeka Nwite, the Court, in granting the motion dated and filed on August 20, 2024, directed the banks to contact the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as soon as any arrest is made.

Justice Nwite ruled thus; “That the banks are hereby directed by this honourable court to issue details of the account package(s) and to place a Post-No-Debit (PND) on the accounts, disable the ATM while allowing inflow into the said accounts as from the date of this court order”.

According to available media reports, though the Court made the ruling on Thursday, August 22nd 2024, the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the order was sighted on Sunday in Abuja.

The reports indicated that the affected account numbers are 4010073491 (Fidelity Bank), 1255130019 (Access Bank), 0006084167 (Abbey Mortgage Multipurpose Bank Plc), 0821931299 (FCMB), 1012007655 (FCMB), 0000575573 (A AG Mortgage Bank Plc), 1007871587 (UBA), 2037117333 (UBA), 5421031104 (ECOBANK ) and 0024541201 (Union Bank).

The list of suspected accounts also include 1022899050 (UBA), 8755008491 (Branch International Services Ltd), 5630208636 (Fidelity), 4936992542 (Fairmoney Microfinance Bank), 8755008499 (Branch International Financial Services Ltd), 2088228208 (UBA), 2115678044 (Zenith Bank), 3041823452 (First Bank), 1011828445 (New Edge Finance), 3024402748 (Fusrt Bank), and 0161502459 (GTBank).

Others are 0040580047 (Access Bank), 0250291788 (Wema Bank), 6112464260 (Branch International Financial Services Ltd), 1000774097 (Sparkle Microfinance Bank Ltd), 3434649965 (Fairmoney Microfinance Bank), 6112464267 (Branch International Finance Services Lit), 8137051249 (OPAY), 8137051249 (PALMPAY), 2013556714 (KUDA Microfinance Bank), and 3104962864 (Polaris Bank).

In the application marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1219/2024, the IGP listed PA.LIN.HO Global Service Ltd, Chinyere Nkiru, Obidient Movement Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Innocent Angel Lovet, Great Communicators Champion Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd as 1st to 5th respondents respectively.

Others include Great Communicators Champion Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, Opaluwa Eleojo Bob-Simon, NUEE State Chapter, Adeyemi Abiodun Abayomi, Adaramoye Michael Tobiloba, and Popoola Festus as 6th to 11th respondents respectively.

In his four-ground argument, the Police counsel informed the Court that the suspected accounts as contained in the schedule in respect of the reliefs sought are subject of investigation and are reasonably suspected to be warehousing proceeds of unlawful activities or fraud.

He further said; “If there is any dealing with the account by way of withdrawal or transfer to another account by the persons under investigation/investigator and the persons that have absolute power to deal with the account will render nugatory any consequential order(s) which the court may make at the conclusion of this application”.

For him, the accounts are used to promote the offence of criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, cyberbullying and cyberstalking which was illegally transferred to the account of the accused persons now at large.

In addition, the IGP’s counsel stated thus; “That the accused persons were involved in hosting another country’s flag in order to undermine the sovereignty of the Nigerian state”.

The affidavit in support of the motion ex-parte, was deposed to by Gregory Woji, a detective attached to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), and it said preliminary investigation revealed that among the suspects arrested were those recruited by some financiers to cause mayhem and destroy life and property across the country.

Woji said preliminary investigation further revealed the financiers were sending money to recruit the indigents and other vulnerable individuals to carry banners and overthrow a democratically elected government.

Furthermore, the officer stated that the investigation also reveals some foreign nationals were the arrowheads in the unscrupulous act of treasonable felony and promoting terrorism financing in Nigeria.

Explaining that the accused persons’ act is akin to the offence of criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, cyberstalking and cyberbullying, the officer said it is the function of the police to stop this act by apprehending the offenders as an offence to one is an offence to all.

He said intelligence reports gathered so far reveal that the suspects are making frantic efforts to transfer or withdraw money from the above mentioned accounts and unless the Court grants the order, the ongoing investigation would be jeopardised.

Woji also told the Court; “That it will be in the interest of justice to grant this request by freezing the account of the said suspects and order their immediate arrest on sighting them pending the outcome of the investigation and possible prosecution”, – With NAN report