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Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja division, has granted the Federal Government an interim forfeiture order to freeze the accounts of bank customers who have no Bank Verification Number (BVN).
The order allows the Federal Government to instruct the banks to disclose any investments made with these funds and to freeze any outward movement from these accounts.
It also mandates the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to appoint an examiner to examine the books of any commercial bank that fails to comply.
Through the order, the Federal Government is seeking: Names of accounts without BVN; Account Numbers; Outstanding balances; Domicilary accounts without BVN; Branch/locations where these accounts are domiciled.
The order also empowers the government or any agent it applies to advertise the accounts without BVN in a widely circulated newspaper and gave a period of 14 days for the account holders to claim ownership and give a tangible reason why the funds should not be forfeited.