Federal High Court Orders Central Bank to Freeze Accounts Without Bank Verification Numbers, BVN

The court ordered the banks to disclose the details of all such accounts, their owners and their proceeds in their affidavit of compliance deposed to by their Chief Compliance Officers.
The Court also made an interim order directing the banks to freeze all the said accounts by stopping all outward payments, operations or transactions pending the hearing of the substantive application seeking the forfeiture of the balances in the accounts to the Federal Government.
Justice NNAMDI DIMGBA had made the orders upon an ex parte motion filed on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Attorney General of the Federation.
The title of the ex parte application indicated that the accounts without BVN allegedly had insufficient Know Customer Guidelines, contrary to the directive of the CBN and Section 3 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011.
It furthered ordered the banks to advertise the accounts without BVN in a widely circulated national newspaper as notice to those who might have any interest in any of the accounts.
Our correspondent reports that Justice DIMGBA adjourned until November 16 for the hearing of the substantive application seeking the forfeiture of the proceeds of the accounts without BVN.