Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Several owners of accounts at various deposit money banks (DMBs) operating in Nigeria without the Bank Verification Number (BVN) are presently not at rest over news of Federal Government obtaining a court order to take over their deposits at the banks.
On February 14, 2014, registration for BVN introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) began across the country and wrapped up on October 31, 2015.
During the period, about 40 million bank customers enrolled for the exercise, which was introduced to checkmate fraud in the financial sector.
Those who did not register to obtain their BVNs were not allowed to operate the accounts, leaving huge amount of money lying fallow at the banks.
But on September 28, 2017, according to reports, the Federal Government, through the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, approached the court to obtain an order to take over all funds held in bank accounts not linked to BVNs.
And on October 17, 2017, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja granted the request for a temporary forfeiture of all the monies.
The court directed all the 19 DMBs operating in the country to release names of accounts not yet connected to BVN; account numbers; their outstanding balances; domiciling locations; and domiciliary accounts without BVN and where they are domiciled to the FG.
They were also ordered to disclose any investments made with funds and to withhold authorisation for any outward inflow of funds from the accounts. All the details are to be submitted to Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the CBN for authentication.
The banks were also directed to publish all bank accounts not linked to BVN in national newspapers with a 14-day notice for individuals with interest in such accounts to come forward and justify why their funds should not be forfeited to the Nigerian government.
Justice Dimgba also ordered the CBN, which was joined as 20th respondent alongside the 19 DMBs, to appoint an official who will examine all the details submitted to the apex bank for compliance.
The affected banks ate Access Bank, Citi Bank, Diamond Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank, FCMB, GTBank, and Heritage Bank.
Others are Keystone Bank, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, UBA, Unity Bank, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.
