BVN: Court modifies conditions to unfreeze unlinked accounts

By Vivian Okejeme

Abuja

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, yesterday, reversed his earlier order which directed that 19 commercial banks whose accounts were not linked with bank verification numbers (BVN) be frozen.
At the resumed proceeding, yesterday, Justice Dimgba with the consent of the counsel in the parties, directed banks to immediately unfreeze accounts that had been linked to a BVN after the orders were made.
He also revoked the Order Number 5 in the ruling, which had directed an interim forfeiture of the proceeds in all the accounts without the BVN, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Justice Dimgba had, on October 17, 2017, through an ex parte motion brought by the Federal Government, ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the 19 commercial banks in the country, to disclose all accounts without the BVN in their custody and the balances on such accounts.
The order also directed the banks to disclose the details of all such accounts, their owners and their proceeds in their affidavit of compliance deposed to by their chief compliance officers.
However, Justice Dimgba, in his ruling noted that the aspects of the order made on October 17, had been posing some “practical problems,” hence the need for the revision by the court.
He said with the modification of the order, the banks would no longer have to wait for the hearing and determination of the substantive suit to unfreeze the account of any customer that undertook the BVN registration.
The judge also noted that, unfreezing the accounts without BVN even with the account owners visiting the banks to undertake the registration would have amounted to a violation of one of the orders of the court since the ruling did not make BVN registration a pre-condition for unfreezing such accounts.
He also held that in view of the order number 4 in the ruling, the court, with agreement of the parties also revoked the order of interim forfeiture of the proceeds in the said accounts without the BVN.
“Parties agreed that the said Order No 4 should be revised to eliminate this problem, in the interim.
“Having listened to all counsel on record, and with the consent of all parties represented, I hereby revise Relief 4 of the court’s order of October 17, 2017, such that the new Relief 4 shall be:
“An interim order of the honourable court stopping all outward payments, operations or outward transactions (including any bill of exchange) in respect of the accounts pending the linking of the accounts to a Bank Verification Number.
“In view of the above agreed compromise revision of Relief 4, I also, hereby revoke and set aside Relief 5 of the court’s order of October 17, 2017, which provides for:
The matter was adjourned till December 11, for hearing.

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