A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to unfreeze 18 bank accounts belonging to a lawyer, Chikaosolu Ojukwu and his company.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed in a ruling overruled the CBN on the collection and utilisation of $4,000 BTA/PTA allowance by the lawyer and his company, Stabilisation Energy Ltd.
The judge said the CBN failed to prove that the company is one of the violators of the forex policy to warrant the publishing of its name and freezing of the accounts.
“Having failed to discharge the burden of proof placed by law on the respondent, this court holds that the action of the respondent (CBN) in directing banks to freeze the accounts of the applicant’’ is pre-emptive, unlawful, and cannot stand in the eyes of the law.
“The affected banks are hereby directed to unfreeze the bank accounts of the applicants immediately,” he said.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele had by an ex-parte application dated and filed on March 2, 2022, applied for an order freezing 383 bank accounts for 180 days.
He had said it was on the grounds that it was investigating allegations that certain customers of commercial/merchant banks received foreign exchange under the false pretext of international travel.
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