The Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital, has dismissed a suit instituted by a legal practitioner, Olumide Babalola, challenging the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy on Current Account maintenance Fee contained in the Guide to the Charges by Banks and other financial Institutions of January 2020.
Babalola had instituted the action in the name of his law firm, Babalola LP, in which he contended that the policy and guidelines of the CBN violated his fundamental human rights.
The CBN, through its Counsel, Adeleke Agbola, of Cheakley Chambers, however challenged the suit on the ground that the plaintiff lacked the legal capacity to institute the suit on a policy that affects the public.
In his Notice of Preliminary Objection to the Suit, Agbola had contended that the plaintiff failed to show that the CBN acted in bad faith or breached any law by issuing the guidelines.
The trial judge, Justice M Shittu Abubakar, after careful analysis of the case, on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, dismissed the suit in its entirety for lacking in merit and upheld the preliminary objection.
The Court held that guidelines issued by the CBN, authorizing deduction of Current Account maintenance charges was lawful and within the statutory powers of CBN.
The Court also concurred with the argument canvassed by the CBN Counsel that the Plaintiff has not shown that the CBN breached any known law by issuing the guidelines.
Justice Abubakar also held that the Plaintiff/Applicant ought to have negotiated with his bank, Access Bank Plc for a reduction of his charges instead of dragging the CBN to Court.
In another development, the Central Bank on Wednesday withdrew its case against the 20 EndSARS protesters/ facilitators and was therefore ordered by the court to unfreeze the accounts of the targeted persons.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to unfreeze the accounts of 20 #EndSARS campaigners targeted by the apex bank after last year’s anti-police brutality demonstrations.
The judge, Ahmed Mohammed, issued the order unfreezing the accounts after the legal teams of both the CBN and the 20 defendants decided to end the case on Wednesday.
“In the light of this, the ex parte order issued on November 4, 2022 freezing the accounts of the defendants pending the investigation by the Central Bank of Nigeria is here by set aside.
“An order is also made unfreezing the accounts of the defendants,” Mr Mohammed ruled on Wednesday.
CBN’s lawyer, Michael Aondoakaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former Attorney-General of the Federation, earlier in the hearing told the judge he filed an ex parte application for the extension of the expired order on Tuesday, but later got instruction from the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to withdraw the case.
He said he was withdrawing the suit in the spirit of reconciliation which informed the setting up of the various Judicial Panels of Inquiry set up to probe cases of police brutality in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests.
He said, “This matter involves young people. I talked to my colleagues and I advised, let us discard all the processes. I will withdraw my processes and they will withdraw theirs.
“By implication, the order goes, the accounts will be unfrozen, and nobody will be indicted.
“The government has set up reconciliation panels. We should give room for a rethink on this matter.
“We have the instruction form my client, the Governor of CBN, that in the spirit of reconciliation, we should not apply for the extension of the order.
“So we are withdrawing our ex parte motion. We should allow reconciliation and peace to reign.”
Responding, the defendants’ lawyer, Femi Falana, also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, confirmed that he had discussed with Mr Aondoakaa “on the way forward in this matter.”
He, however, insisted that “the order ex parte made by this court expired last week”, adding that he had filed “a motion to have the order quashed” but “has been overtaken by event, since the order has expired.”
The 20 #EndSARS protesters and promoters targeted in the case by the CBN included Bolatito Oduala, Chima Ibebunjoh, Mary Kpengwa, Gatefield Nigeria Limited, Saadat Bibi, Bassey Israel, Wisdom Obi, Nicholas Osazele, Ebere Idibie, Akintomide Yusuf, Uhuo Promise, Mosopefoluwa Odeseye, Adegoke Emmanuel, Umoh Ekanem, Babatunde Segun, Mulu Teghenan, Mary Oshifowora, Winifred Jacob, Victor Solomon, and Idunu Williams.
The affected account holders listed above are believed to have either participated directly in or contributed financially to the protests which pressured the government into disbanding the police tactical squad popularly known as the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS).
In the twilight of the protests, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, on October 15, 2020, directed various banks to place a Post-No-Debit order on the accounts linked to the 20 #EndSARS campaigners.
The Apex bank went to court to allege that the listed persons were suspected of financing terrorism leading to the Ex- parte order to freeze their accounts.
The protests took a new bloody dimension on October 20, when the security agents opened fire on unarmed protesters.