Case of Citizen, Mrs. Chindinma Cynthia and illegal freezing of her account by Nigeria Police, As Court award #200,000 against Zenith Bank Plc
Recently a known activist and popular human rights lawyer, barrister Samuel ihensekhien Jnr have had the course to approach different Nigeria courts in many instances to unfreeze accounts of parties and clients, who have no pending criminal matters or are not subject of any criminal investigation anywhere, the surprising thing is, is that most of this security agency just resort to sheer impunity in other to prove a point and then they hide it under the guise of investigation of a nonexistent criminal matter. In the recent case as stated above-mentioned, which involved illegal court orders secured by legal officers of Nigeria police force in the case of IGP vs Zenith bank Plc and others before Magistrate Haribo Zim of fct senior magistrate court, beware, the lady in question whose account was blocked, in the person of Mrs chiminea chukwurah just woke up one morning on 5th July 2022 and discovered that she cannot operate and withdraw funds from her accounts in that regard, from that day to on the 9th September 2022, when the then honorable Haribo Zim of the duty -fct magistrate court, which granted the illegal court orders to the bank and police, then also unfreeze and set aside the illegal court orders of and on Mrs chiminea chukwurah zenith bank account. The said women suffered.
The said Mrs chiminea chukwurah has never been involved in any criminal matter, nor has she been involved in any shady business of any kind.
Her account was just blocked by the Nigeria police fib unit for no just cause. The applicant Mrs chukwurah chiminea had no other option than to approach the courts, after all, entreaties and persuasion to the Nigerian police proved futile, and also around this time, she was in dire need of money for medical assistance.
The honorable magistrate court presided over by honorable Haribo Zim after discovering the gross error of the freezing orders of this bank account in the above case unfreeze her account with a caveat for the Nigeria police force not to block the same again.
In the above case, it should be noted that zenith bank plc placed a pnd on the Mrs chiminea chukwurah account, which was simply out of carelessness and high-handedness of the Nigeria police force fib unit. , As the police in a case of mistaken identity with notorious Ponzi scheme operator, the Famous marksman chinedu of failed chinmark investment, the police mistook Mrs chukwurah’s account with that of the fraudster mentioned. The Nigerian police directed the lady bankers to put a lien on the lady’s account for no just cause and not for any clear reason. In dealing with these issues, the pertinent question to ask is this:
On whether the Police can freeze accounts without legal proceedings:
“Section 4 of the Police Act does not expressly grant such power or prerogative to the police. In the course of their investigations, if the police must have recourse to and take copies of bankers’ books, they must strictly comply with section 7 of the Bankers Books Evidence Act (supra). They must institute a legal proceeding before freezing an account.
Moreso the court, after careful consideration of the issues in this case above, the court awarded a paltry two hundred thousand naira in favor of Mrs chukwurah chiminea against zenith bank plc representing the cost of litigation, and refused any further award of costs against the zenith bank PLC and Nigeria police force.
The lot and the last have not been heard of matters like this, as the Nigerian populace should start embracing public interest litigations on cases of this nature against security agencies and the Nigerian banks. As that is the only solution and resort for cases of this nature
