The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has secured three separate interim orders from a Federal High Court, Abuja to freeze bank 194 bank accounts owned by Bureaux de Change firms and other individuals in 17 banks.
The CBN published the three court orders on its website. The documents signed by the presiding Judge, A.R. Mohammed, empowered the CBN to direct all the banks to freeze all the bank accounts for a period of 45 days only pending the outcome of the investigation.
The court papers read: “The order may be extended upon good reasons shown. Any person aggrieved by this order could apply to the court to have the order set aside, discharged or have the order reviewed for good reasons without waiting for the 45 days to lapse.”
The affected firms include Seasons Bureau De Change Limited, Sethwealth Ventures Limited, Sani Polo Global Investment Limited, Romvic Ventures Limited and Blue Beam Capital Limited among others.
The apex bank had on Wednesday secured an order of the court to freeze 11 bank accounts to enable it to conduct investigations into suspicious FX activities.
The order was sequel to an exparte motion, dated March 12, praying the court for a mandatory order directing the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited to freeze all transactions on the listed accounts and all other bank accounts of the defendants for 180 days pending the outcome of investigation and inquiry currently being conducted by the CBN.