The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) is set to investigate the actions of Oluwadare T. O., a magistrate at the Ikole Magistrate Court in Ekiti State, who ordered the freezing of a bank account and arrest of anyone who approaches the bank with a ‘lift order without police permission’.
During the NBA’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday, Afam Osigwe, the NBA president, said the association would investigate the matter and boycott proceedings in the court if they found the magistrate granted the order.
Social media was awash with criticism of the ruling after Oluwadare’s court order went viral on Wednesday.
The order, granted on January 23, was for a case between Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun and both Keystone Bank and Nineteenth Kid Estate Residents Association.
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Oluwadare ordered that Keystone Bank provide certified true copies of the account opening package, statement of account from November 1, 2024, to date, and certificate of identification for the Nineteenth Kid Estate Residents Association to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2 Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos State.
Order from Magistrate court.
The fourth item on the order was for the bank to place a Post-No-Debit (PND) on the account and deactivate all internet/electronic transactions on it.
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The court also ordered that “The PND shouldn’t be lifted if the suspect has not report[sic] to the police and arrest[sic] any persons who come with lift order without police permission.”
FIJ found that on October 8, 2020, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, ruled that magistrates lacked the power to grant such orders.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1635/2019, Ekwo said, “A magistrate lacks the powers to make bankers order and/or order freezing or enabling a post-no-debit on bank accounts pursuant to non-existent/repealed section 7 of the Banker‘s Order Act 1847.″
He declared in that suit that “the bankers’ order/order freezing and/or enabling the post-no-debit cannot be validly issued pursuant to a non-existent/repealed Bankers Order Act 1847 and any other irrelevant foreign law”.
Also, Section 251(1)(d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), gives the Federal High Court exclusive right to exercise jurisdiction in matters related to banking, banks and other financial regulations.
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