The Federal High Court, Abuja has granted the request of the Central Bank of Nigeria to freeze the accounts of some companies allegedly involved in fraudulent financial activities.
The request, granted by Justice Ahmed Mohammed, was filed by former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, on behalf of the CBN.
Some of the affected companies include Rise Vest Technologies Limited, Bamboo Systems Technology Limited, Bamboo Systems Tech. Ltd., CTL/Business Expenses and Trove Technologies Limited.
Others are: Chayomi Multi Services Limited, Ningbo Excel Enterprises Limited and Dagang Enterprises.
The court order, empowers the CBN to direct heads of Zenith Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Access Bank and VFD Microfinance Bank to freeze forthwith all transactions on the 86 accounts on the list annexed to the CBN’s application and all other bank accounts of the defendants/respondents for a period of 180 days for the first set of defendants and 90 days for the second set.
Aondoakaa told the court that some of the firms were owned by individuals and organisations based in the United States.
The accounts are to be frozen pending the outcome of investigation and inquiry currently being conducted by the CBN.
Aondoakaa said that the application was premised on the grounds that the firms were using the foreign exchange sourced from the Nigerian market to purchase foreign bonds/shares in contravention of its directive issued in July 2015.
The applicant also accused the firms of operating without licences as asset management companies, adding that the firms violated the CBN directive contained in its circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/012 and dated July 1, 2015.
The former Attorney- General also said that the forex deals by the defendants were undercutting the strength of the naira against the dollar.
