Ebun Francis || A federal high court in Abuja presided over by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba last week granted the request by the attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami for the temporary forfeiture of all monies in any account not linked to BVN or any account whose owner could not be fully identified.
The order followed an originating motion of notice filed by Mr. Malami on behalf of the Nigerian government on September 28.
The court granted all the nine reliefs sought by the attorney who was represented by a lawyer, Usman Dakas.
The court ordered all the 19 deposit money banks, DMBs, operating in the country to release to Nigerian government names of accounts not yet connected to BVN; account numbers; their outstanding balances; domiciling locations; and domiciliary accounts without BVN and where they are domiciled.
The banks listed as respondents in the ex-parte suit are Access Bank, Citi Bank, Diamond Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank and First City Monument Bank.
Also included are, Guarantee Trust Bank, Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank and United Bank for Africa, Unity Bank, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba also ordered all the banks to disclose any investments made with funds and to withhold authorisation for any outward inflow of funds from the accounts. All the details are to be submitted to Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, NIBSS, and the CBN for authentication.
The banks were further directed to publish all bank accounts not linked to BVN in national newspapers with a 14-day notice for individuals with interest in such accounts to come forward and justify why their funds should not be forfeited to the Nigerian government.