By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, on Friday, aborted bid by the Federal Government to seize funds in all accounts without Bank Verification Number, BVN.

BVN

The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, held that the government failed to fulfill certain conditions that would entitle it to secure final forfeiture order in respect of funds in such accounts.

Justice Dimgba held that the federal government failed to comply with section 17 of the Advanced Fee Fraud law.

He maintained that for the government to succeed in obtaining final forfeiture order, it must be proved that funds in such accounts were abandoned or unclaimed, were products of unlawful activity, as well as an advert placed for anyone laying claim to such funds to come forward.

“Advertisement, therefore, is a necessary condition to be fulfilled”, the court held, adding that “relief sought by the plaintiff cannot be granted at this stage”.

Justice Dimgba said the government neither adduced any evidence to prove that funds in the accounts were proceeds of crime, nor indicated efforts it made to ensure that banks complied with interim orders of the court.

It will be recalled that the court had in an ex-parte order it made on October 17, 2017, directed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and 19 commercial banks in the country to disclose all accounts in their custody without BVN and amounts in them.

The court further granted an interim order directing the banks to freeze funds in such accounts by stopping “all outward payments, operations or transactions,” pending the hearing of the substantive application that was filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, seeking permanent forfeiture of funds in such accounts to FG.

It specifically granted “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, pending the determination of the originating motion on notice”. The court ordered Chief Compliance Officers of all the banks to depose an affidavit disclosing details of all such accounts, their owners, and their proceeds.

However, in another ruling on November 15, 2017, Justice Dimgba, varied the initial orders following an agreement FG reached with the 19 commercial banks.

The court directed banks to immediately unfreeze accounts that had since been linked to a BVN after the freezing order was made.

The Judge noted that the way the relief was couched, the freezing order placed on such accounts would have subsisted until the case was finally determined and not by the account owner undertaking the BVN registration.

Justice Dimgba said that aspect of his ruling had created “awkward and unfortunate results.”

Meanwhile, the government in a subsequent motion applied for final forfeiture order on all funds in accounts without BVN.

All the 19 commercial banks, however, challenged the jurisdiction of the high court to entertain the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/911/16, which has the federal government and the AGF as the applicants.

They prayed the court to dismiss the suit, contending that the AGF lacked the capacity to demand such relief on behalf of FG.

Delivering judgment in the matter, the court dismissed all the preliminary objections the banks raised against the AGF. Justice Dimgba in another ruling on Friday in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1203/2017, ordered that the sum of N5, 734, 785, 000 which had been in a recovery account of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, domiciled with the CBN,   should be permanently forfeited to the federal government.

The court further granted the government leave to claim ownership of eight unclaimed property alleged to have been acquired through proceeds of crime.

The properties which the court ordered to be forfeited   included two four bedroom terrace duplexes at Gudu District Abuja, s bedroom detached house at Apo Dutse,   Plot 1086 Cadastral Zone B10,   Dakibiyu,   FCT,   Plot 2317 Mbora District, Cadastral Zone C06 FCT,   3 bedroom flat at Victoria Island Lagos, five bedroom detached and another three bedroom bungalow at Wuse II, Abuja.