‘Money laundering’: Court temporarily freezes 21 bank accounts, orders owners’ arrest

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered an interim freezing of 21 bank accounts domiciled in some commercial banks over the allegation of money laundering.

Emeka Nwite, the presiding judge, also ordered the police to arrest the account owners.

The judge granted the order on Friday following a motion ex parte marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1965/V/2024 moved by Ibrahim Mohammed, counsel for the inspector-general of police (IGP).

The judge further granted an order “directing the banks to issue details of the account package(s) and to place a post-no-debit (PND) on the accounts, disable the ATMs while allowing inflow into the said accounts” pending the conclusion of the investigation.

“I have listened to the submission of the learner counsel for the applicant and gone through the affidavit evidence,” Nwite said.

“I am of the view that the motion ex-parte is meritorious.

“The application is hereby granted except that the period of the investigation can only last for a period of 90 days.”

The judge adjourned the matter until April 3 for mention.

The commercial banks are Access Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Ltd, Wema Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Union Bank Plc, Guarantee Trust Bank Ltd, United Bank of Africa Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, First Monument Bank Plc, Heritage Bank Plc, TAJ Bank Plc, and Keystone Bank Plc.

In the motion ex parte, counsel to the applicant (IGP) submitted that the accounts are the subject of investigation, which are reasonably suspected to be warehousing proceeds of unlawful activities or fraud.

He said, “If there is any dealing with the accounts by way of withdrawal or transfer to another account by the person under investigation/investigator and the person that has absolute power to deal with the account, it will render nugatory any consequential order(s) which the court may make at the conclusion of this application”.

In the affidavit attached to the motion, Glory Ohio, a detective with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and attached to the force criminal investigation department, said the IGP received a petition bordering on stealing and breach of trust, which preliminary investigation revealed to be money laundering.

“That the complainant alleged that he needs a special purpose vehicle company to enable him to secure the contract with the Nigerian Navy, which led him to enter a joint venture agreement with the defendant, who has the company name Indetix Limited,” the affidavit reads.

“That the petitioner was offered a contract to supply ICT equipment and accessories, supply 10 wooden canoes and outboard engines, supply 13x115HP Yamaha 4-stroke long shaft outboard engines, supply and installation of inverter batteries, and supply of outboard engines and firefighting equipment.

“That the Nigeria navy offered the petitioner the contract and both parties opened a joint account with Zenith Bank where they made themselves the two signatories to the account.

“That both parties concerned drafted a memorandum of understanding and a clause spelt the sum of 15% of the profit to be paid to the defendant and parties appended their signatures.

“The Nigeria Navy disbursed the contract sum in installments to be used in the execution of the contract.

“That the petitioner received a letter from the complainant that he is not comfortable with the first agreement signed by both parties for 15% of the profit rather than 7.5% of the total sum of the contract to his own share of the contract.

“That the petitioner disagreed with the proposal and the new terms intended to be smuggled into the parties’ earlier agreement.

“That the refusal of the petitioner does not go well with the suspect, as a result of which the suspect sent a purported company resolution to the bank and removed the petitioner as a signatory to the joint account, which makes him the sole signatory.

“That his act was motivated in furtherance of his clandestine motives to steal from the joint account, and he did steal money under the guise of the purchase of the board engine.

“That the suspect further transferred the contract sum paid into the joint account to various accounts in order to disguise the origin of his illegal activities.”

Ohio said the purported money disbursed for the purchase of the engine board was later transferred back to the suspect via a different account from the joint account.

According to the detective, this is done to promote money laundering and conceal his illegal activities.

The officer said the intelligent report gathered so far revealed that the suspects were making an effort to transfer or withdraw money from the accounts, noting that unless the court grants the order, the investigation will be jeopardised.