A magistrate court sitting in Karu, Abuja, has ordered the freezing of 88 bank accounts following an ex-parte motion filed by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, on July 25, 2024.
According to reports, the order, which is binding on 12 financial institutions in Nigeria, contradicted a 2019 Federal High Court order barring magistrates from issuing bankers orders to freeze accounts.
Reports further said that Magistrate Ahmed Ndajiwo, who presided over the July matter, ordered that the 12 institutions furnish the police with statements of account from January 1 to July 25 for the accounts belonging to 88 defendants.
He also ordered that these institutions provide account opening packages, Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), and other accounts linked to them.
Ndajiwo’s final order was for the financial institutions to place a Post-No-Debit (PND) alert and arrest all 88 defendants if they visited to make a transaction in person. This was to assist the police in an investigation, the magistrate reportedly stated.
The compelled institutions include Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Jaiz Bank, Kuda Microfinance, Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, Opay Digital, Sterling Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.
The motion did not state what the police were investigating the defendants for.
Earlier on October 6, 2020, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja had ruled that magistrates lack the powers to grant such orders.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1635/2019, Ekwo had held thus: “A magistrate lacks the powers to make bankers order and/or order freezing or enabling a post-no-debit on bank accounts pursuant to non-existent/repealed section 7 of the Banker‘s Order Act 1847.″
He declared in that suit that “the bankers’ order/order freezing and/or enabling the post-no-debit cannot be validly issued pursuant to a non-existent/repealed Bankers Order Act 1847 and any other irrelevant foreign law”.
Also, Section 251(1)(d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), gives the Federal High Court exclusive right to exercise jurisdiction in matters related to banking, banks and other financial regulations.