A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the freezing of bank accounts belonging to 32 individuals and companies linked to the 10-day #EndBadGovernance Protest held nationwide.
This measure will remain in place pending the investigation and prosecution of the case.
Justice Emeka Nwite, ruling on an ex-parte motion filed by Inspector-General of Police counsel Ibrahim Mohammed, also directed banks to detain account holders or anyone conducting transactions on these accounts.
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Justice Nwite granted the motion, which was filed on August 20, and instructed the banks to notify the Nigeria Police Force immediately upon making any arrests.
The contact numbers provided for this purpose are 08035179870 and 07032449912.
“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,” the judge declared.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that although the ruling was issued on Thursday, the certified true copy of the court order was obtained on Sunday in Abuja.
The affected bank accounts include:
– **Fidelity Bank**: 4010073491, 5630208636
– **Access Bank**: 1255130019, 0040580047
– **Abbey Mortgage Multipurpose Bank Plc**: 0006084167
– **FCMB**: 0821931299, 1012007655
– **A AG Mortgage Bank Plc**: 0000575573
– **UBA**: 1007871587, 2037117333, 1022899050, 2088228208
– **ECOBANK**: 5421031104
– **Union Bank**: 0024541201
– **Branch International Services Ltd**: 8755008491, 8755008499
– **Zenith Bank**: 2115678044
– **First Bank**: 3041823452, 3024402748
– **New Edge Finance**: 1011828445
– **GTBank**: 0161502459
– **Wema Bank**: 0250291788
– **Sparkle Microfinance Bank Ltd**: 1000774097
– **Fairmoney Microfinance Bank**: 3434649965, 4936992542
– **KUDA Microfinance Bank**: 2013556714
– **Polaris Bank**: 3104962864
– **OPAY**: 8137051249
– **PALMPAY**: 8137051249
In the application marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1219/2024, the Inspector-General of Police listed the following as respondents:
1. PA.LIN.HO Global Service Ltd
2. Innocent Angel Lovet Chinyere Nkiru
3. Obidient Movement Multipurpose Cooperative Society
4. Innocent Angel Lovet
5. Great Communicators Champion Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd
6. Opaluwa Eleojo Bob-Simon
7. NUEE State Chapter
8. Adeyemi Abiodun Abayomi
9. Adaramoye Michael Tobiloba
10. Popoola Festus
The I-G, through his application, argued that the accounts listed are under investigation and are reasonably suspected of being used to store proceeds from unlawful activities or fraud.
“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,” he said.
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He stated that the accounts are believed to be involved in facilitating criminal activities such as conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, cyberbullying, and cyberstalking. These illicit funds were allegedly transferred to the accounts of the individuals who are currently at large.
“That the accused persons were involved in hosting another country’s flag in order to undermine the sovereignty of Nigerian state,” he added.
In the affidavit supporting the ex-parte motion, Gregory Woji, a detective with the Force Criminal Investigation Department, stated that preliminary investigations uncovered that some suspects were being recruited by financiers to incite violence and damage property.
Woji explained that these financiers were providing funds to recruit locals and other vulnerable individuals to carry banners and attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government.
Further investigation revealed that some foreign nationals were central to these acts of treason and terrorism financing in Nigeria.
He emphasized that the actions of the accused are related to criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, cyberstalking, and cyberbullying.
Woji asserted that it is the police’s duty to prevent these acts by apprehending the offenders, as an offense against one is an offense against all.
He also noted that intelligence reports indicate the suspects are attempting to transfer or withdraw money from the accounts, and without this court order, the investigation could be compromised.
“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,” he averred.
