Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a N301m suit instituted against the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and the United Bank of Africa, UBA, by an aggrieved customer, Babatunde Victor over an alleged unlawful freezing of his bank account.
The Judge dismissed the suit on the grounds that the CBN and UBA froze the account number 2116708900 domiciled in the UBA in compliance with an order of the court.
Delivering judgment in the suit of the aggrieved UBA customer, the Judge held that the fact that CBN obtained an order from the Federal High Court before freezing the account made the action lawful.
Victor had dragged the CBN and UBA before the Judge claiming N301 million naira as compensation for allegedly unlawfully freezing his account between 2021 till date.
He claimed that he was not contacted or informed of any reason before a post-no debit restriction was placed on the account by UBA on the order of CBN.
The plaintiff asserted that the unlawful freezing of the account amounted to a breach of his fundamental rights to own property and the action of the CBN and UBA caused him untold hardships and embarrassment.
The bank customer prayed the Court to award N200m punitive compensation, N100m general damages and another N1m cost of litigation against the two financial institutions to be paid to him for the infringement on his fundamental rights and breach of bank-customer relationship.
In its defence however, the CBN claimed that the account was frozen in the course of investigations into terrorism funding allegations and that an order of court was obtained to freeze the account for 90 days.
CBN further claimed that immediately after the order was set aside, the post-no debit restriction placed on the account was lifted.
After reviewing the evidence placed before the court, Justice Nwite said there was no dispute on the fact that an order of the court was secured before the account was frozen.
The Judge said the claim of the CBN that the account was unfrozen immediately a counter order was issued was not disputed by the plaintiff and was therefore true.
“I have carefully come to the conclusion that the plaintiff in this instant matter did not deny or dispute the claim of the CBN that the no debit restriction placed on the account was removed when an order to freeze it was set aside.
“What is more, it is the duty of every responsible organization and individual to give effect to an order of the court as done by the two defendants in this matter.
“In view of the foregoing, I find no merit in this case. I make an order dismissing it and it is hereby dismissed for want of merit”, the Judge said.
Court dismisses N301m suit against CBN, UBA for freezing customer’s account