A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the freezing of 32 bank accounts belonging to individuals and firms linked to the organisation of the just concluded #EndBadGovernance protest.
Justice Emeka Nwite, who issued the order, said the accounts shall remain frozen pending the conclusion of the police’s investigation and prosecution of the case.
Justice Nwite issued the order while ruling on an order ex-parte motion filed and argued for the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Mohammed.
In the ruling rendered on Thursday, the judge equally ordered the banks to apprehend the account holders or any person transacting business on the said accounts.
He ordered the banks to contact the Nigeria Police Force through the telephone numbers: 08035179870 and 07032449912 as soon as any arrest was made.
Justice Nwite said: “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.”
Listed as respondents in the case, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1219/2024, are PA.LIN.HO Global Service Ltd, Innocent Angel Lovet Chinyere Nkiru, Obidient Movement Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Innocent Angel Lovet, Great Communicators Champion Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd.
Others are Great Communicators Champion Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, Opaluwa Eleojo Bob-Simon, NUEE State Chapter, Adeyemi Abiodun Abayomi, Adaramoye Michael Tobiloba, Popoola Festus.
The affected accounts include 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).
Others are 1022899050 (UBA), 8755008491 (Branch International Services Ltd), 5630208636 (Fidelity), and 4936992542 (Fairmoney Microfinance Bank).
Also included are 8755008499 (Branch International Financial Services Ltd), 2088228208 (UBA), 2115678044 (Zenith Bank), 3041823452 (First Bank), 1011828445 (New Edge Finance), 3024402748 (Fusrt Bank), 0161502459 (GTBank) and 0040580047 (Access Bank),
They also include 0250291788 (Wema Bank), 6112464260 (Branch International Financial Services Ltd), 1000774097 (Sparkle Microfinance Bank Ltd), 3434649965 (Fair money Microfinance Bank), 2013556714 (KUDA Microfinance Bank), 3104962864 (Polaris Bank), 6112464267 (Branch International Finance Services Lit), 8137051249 (OPAY) and 8137051249 (PALMPAY).
Mohammed, while moving the motion, said the accounts as contained in the schedule in respect of which reliefs sought are subject to investigation and are reasonably suspected to be warehousing proceeds of unlawful activities or fraud.
He added: “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 after this application.”
He stated that 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.
Mohammed said: “The accused persons were involved in hosting another country’s flag to undermine the sovereignty of the Nigerian state.”
In a supporting affidavit, it was stated that a preliminary investigation revealed that some suspects arrested were being recruited by some financiers to cause mayhem and destroy life and property.
Mohammed said preliminary investigation further revealed that the financiers were sending money to recruit the indigents and other vulnerable individuals to carry banners and overthrow a democratically elected government.
He added that preliminary investigation further reveals that some foreign nationals were the arrowheads in the unscrupulous act of treasonable felony and promoting terrorism financing in Nigeria.
He 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.
According to him, intelligent reports gathered so far revealed that the suspects are making an effort to transfer or withdraw money from the accounts and unless this honourable court grants this order, otherwise, the investigation will be jeopardized.
He added: “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.”
