Saturday, January 4, 2025 - A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the interim freezing of 21 bank accounts across multiple commercial banks over allegations of money laundering.
Presiding judge Emeka Nwite also directed the police to arrest the
owners of the accounts.
The judge granted the order on Friday, January 3, following a motion ex
parte marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1965/V/2024, filed by Ibrahim Mohammed, counsel for the
Inspector-General of Police (IGP). The order mandates the banks to "issue
details of the account package(s) and to place a post-no-debit (PND) on the
accounts, disable the ATMs while allowing inflow into the said accounts"
pending the conclusion of the investigation.
“I have listened to the submission of the learner counsel for the
applicant and gone through the affidavit evidence,” Nwite stated. “I am of the
view that the motion ex parte is meritorious. The application is hereby granted
except that the period of the investigation can only last for a period of 90
days.”
The motion ex parte submitted by the IGP’s counsel argued that the
accounts were under investigation for allegedly warehousing proceeds of
unlawful activities or fraud.
“If there is any dealing with the accounts by way of withdrawal or
transfer to another account by the person under investigation/investigator and
the person that has absolute power to deal with the account, it will render
nugatory any consequential order(s) which the court may make at the conclusion
of this application,” Mohammed stated.
An affidavit attached to the motion, filed by Glory Ohio, a detective
with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) attached to the Force Criminal
Investigation Department, outlined the details of the case. Ohio stated that
the IGP had received a petition involving allegations of stealing and breach of
trust, which preliminary investigations revealed to involve money laundering.
“That the complainant alleged that he needs a special purpose vehicle
company to enable him to secure the contract with the Nigerian Navy, which led
him to enter a joint venture agreement with the defendant, who has the company
name Indetix Limited,” the affidavit reads. Ohio explained that the petitioner
had been awarded a contract to supply ICT equipment and accessories, wooden
canoes, outboard engines, inverter batteries, and firefighting equipment to the
Nigerian Navy. Both parties reportedly opened a joint account with Zenith Bank,
where they were signatories.
The affidavit stated, “That both parties concerned drafted a memorandum
of understanding and a clause spelt the sum of 15% of the profit to be paid to
the defendant and parties appended their signatures. The Nigerian Navy
disbursed the contract sum in installments to be used in the execution of the
contract.”
However, tensions arose when the complainant received a letter from the
suspect proposing a revision of the initial agreement from 15% of the profit to
7.5% of the total contract sum. “The petitioner disagreed with the proposal and
the new terms intended to be smuggled into the parties’ earlier agreement,” the
affidavit continued.
The refusal allegedly led the suspect to send a “purported company
resolution” to the bank, removing the petitioner as a signatory to the joint
account, effectively making himself the sole signatory.
“That his act was motivated in furtherance of his clandestine motives to
steal from the joint account, and he did steal money under the guise of the
purchase of the board engine,” the affidavit alleged.
Ohio further claimed that the suspect transferred the contract sum from
the joint account to various other accounts to disguise the origin of the
funds. “The purported money disbursed for the purchase of the engine board was
later transferred back to the suspect via a different account from the joint
account,” the detective added.
The affidavit concluded that intelligence reports indicated ongoing
attempts by the suspects to withdraw or transfer funds from the accounts,
emphasizing that without the court’s intervention, the investigation could be
compromised. The case has been adjourned to April 3 for mention.
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