The Federal High Court which granted an order that bank accounts not linked to Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) should be frozen has reversed it.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba who gave the order at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court said the reversal became necessary in view of the problem it had created.
According to him, it created an “awkward and unfortunate result.”
He made the reversal at the resumed hearing on the case on Wednesday.
His words: “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.”
He added that “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: “An interim order of forfeiture of the monies in the said accounts without BVN to the Claimants/Applicants being accounts with insufficient Know Your Customer guidelines contrary to Section 3 of the Money Laundering Act, 2011 and CBN guidelines the determination of the originating motion on notice.”
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With the reversal, there will be enough time for those who had not linked their accounts to the BVN to do so.
The snag, however, is that they would not be able to withdraw funds from accounts not linked yet.
They would be able to withdraw funds whenever they link the account.
It would be recalled that the court had given 14-day period within which all bank accounts not linked to BVN should be linked.
Failure to do so, according to the order then, would mean forfeiture of funds in the accounts.
The order followed a motion filed to that effect by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
He hinged his case on the Money Laundering Act 2011, arguing that bank accounts not linked to BVN were suspicious.
He therefore requested that the funds in them should be forfeited.
