IGP Egbetokun gets Magistrate Court’s order freezing 88 bank accounts

A magistrate court sitting in Karu, Abuja, has ordered the freezing of 88 bank accounts following an ex parte motion Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), filed on July 25, 2024.

A report by FIJ said this order, which was binding on 12 financial institutions in Nigeria, contradicted a 2019 Federal High Court order barring magistrates from issuing bankers orders to freeze accounts.

According to the document sighted and cited by FIJ 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. All this was to assist the police in an investigation, the magistrate 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, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.

Page 1 of motion seen by FIJ

Court ruling on the matter

The motion did not state what the police were investigating the defendants for.

Meanwhile, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja had ruled on October 6, 2020, that magistrates lacked the power to grant such orders.

In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1635/2019, Ekwo said, “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to make bankers order and/or order freezing or enabling a post-no-debit on bank accounts pursuant to non-existent/repealed section 7 of the Banker‘s Order Act 1847″.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bankers’ order/order freezing and/or enabling the post-no-debit cannot be validly issued pursuant to a non-existent/repealed Bankers Order Act 1847 and any other irrelevant foreign law”.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. [FIJ]