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Legal opinion varies as Federal Government moves to seize 15m Bank Accounts

Following an originating motion of notice filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on September 28, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, of the Federal High Court Abuja, has granted a request to temporarily forfeit all funds held in Bank Accounts, not linked with Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).

Justice Dimgba granted all the nine reliefs sought by Mr. Malami represented by a lawyer, Usman Dakas on October 17.

The Government argued using Section 3 of the Money Laundering Act, 2011, which states that banks must “Ensure that documents, data or information collected under the customer due diligence process is kept up-to-date and relevant by undertaking reviews of existing records, particularly for higher risk categories of customers or business relationships”.

Funds in Bank Accounts owned by Corporate Organisations, Government Agencies or individuals, that are without Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), will be forfeited to the Federal Government in 14 days from the date the order was given, should the owners of the accounts fail to show cause why their monies should not be forfeited.

Members of the public have questioned the legality of the move by the Federal Government, asking under what law the ruling was given, and stating that the 14-day notice was very short.

A lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, described BVN as a policy decision and not backed by law, citing Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution and Article 7 of the African Charter, which says it was not proper to determine the rights of parties in their absence to back up his point.

“There is nothing in Section 3 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 that makes BVN a condition precedent for operating a bank account in Nigeria, nothing at all. What the law requires is verifiable identity of the customer, such as name, address, photographs, identity cards, etc”.

Another legal practitioner, Liborous Oshoma, said the funds were mostly personal deposits adding that in law, orders are supposed to be specific, directed and enforceable against individuals or institutions.

He stated that he could not see how the Government could enforce orders against individuals who have not been accused of any criminal offences.

“You can’t just drag banks to court and ask them to submit all funds in bank accounts which they’re holding in trust for private individuals”.

The BVN is a unique identification number that can be verified and used to transact business across all banking platforms in Nigeria. Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), imposed the policy to capture customers’ data for financial transactions and check fraud in the banking system.

Registration for BVNs started February 14, 2014, across the country. CBN noted that over 20.8 million customers’ enrolled 40 million Bank Accounts before the October 31, 2015, deadline for customers residing within the country.

CBN however extended the deadline for Nigerians in diaspora to December 2016, to sign up for the BVN system, but thousands home and abroad are yet to comply with registration.

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