A judge in Abuja has ordered banks to freeze 21 bank accounts because of suspected money laundering. The judge also ordered the police to arrest the people who own these accounts.
This happened on Friday after the Inspector-General of Police’s lawyer, Ibrahim Mohammed, made a special request to the court. The judge ordered the banks to share account details and stop all withdrawals, including ATM use, though money can still be deposited while police investigate.
The Judge, Emeka Nwite, said: “I have listened to the submission of the learner counsel for the applicant and gone through the affidavit evidence. 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 case involves account holders in many major Nigerian banks, including Access Bank, Sterling Bank, Wema Bank, Fidelity Bank, Zenith Bank, and others. The police believe these accounts might contain money from illegal activities or fraud.
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The police lawyer explained that if the account owners were allowed to move money around, it could mess up their investigation.
According to police detective Glory Ohio, this all started with a complaint about stolen money and breach of trust. The story involves a business deal with the Nigerian Navy where two partners formed a company called Indetix Limited. They agreed to split profits, but things went wrong when one partner tried to change the deal’s terms.
The detective explained that after one partner refused to change the profit-sharing agreement from 15% to 7.5%, the other partner removed them from the joint account and started moving money around to different accounts. The police think this was done to hide illegal activities, especially regarding money meant for buying boat engines.
The case will be reviewed again on April 3.
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