‘Freezing of #EndSARS promoters account by CBN an abuse of regulatory powers’

Joseph Jibueze

 

A CIVIL society group, Access to Justice (A2J), has expressed dismay at the order of Justice Ahmed Mohammed of Federal High court Abuja granting the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the power to freeze the account of 20 promoters of #EndSARS protest.

A2J said the order was a deviation from the rule of law.

The group in a statement titled, “CBN’s Descent into Partisan Political Arena and Abetting of Political Repression is Appalling and Gross Abuse of its Regulatory Powers” issued in Lagos and signed by the Convener, Joseph Otteh said the order  was “regrettable and unfortunate.”

A2J noted that the CBN obtained the order ex-parte, without hearing the other side.

It said: “Settled jurisprudence directs courts to avoid the use of ex-parte orders where extreme urgencies do not exist but Hon. Justice Mohammed nevertheless went ahead to issue one, when there was, ostensibly, no grave urgency in the application by the Central Bank.

“There is no tenable reason why the court could not request that the persons who would be affected by its order be put on notice of the application so they can defend themselves and show reasons why the order(s) should not be made against them.

“Hon Justice Mohammed’s order, is, therefore, regrettable and unfortunate; it is not consistent with established judicial precedents, and will undermine public confidence in the Judiciary.  Asking those caught and crippled by the order to apply to court for review after the order was made is like medicine after death. They ought to have been heard in the first place, before the order was made!”

Access to Justice denounced the actions of CBN, noting that the freezing of accounts linked to \\EndSARS protesters began well before the court issued its orders, specifically in October 2020, at the time the EndSARS protests were taking place and were adjudged relatively peaceful.

According to the group: “The CBN reportedly ordered commercial banks and payment platforms to freeze accounts linked to persons associated with the protests. Following up its actions afterwards by seeking a court order shows the CBN knew it was acting illegally when it directed commercial banks to freeze the aforesaid accounts, but went ahead anyway to do so.”

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The group stressed: “court orders do not have a retrospective effect, therefore the CBN’s prior actions were wholly unlawful and unconstitutional.

“This organisation is concerned about the growing erosion of the CBN’s independence and political neutrality.

“The CBN is transforming into a partisan political organ of the government and putting its vast regulatory powers into illicit partisan political uses, for the purpose of suppressing the legitimate exercise of constitutional rights of freedom of speech and expression. This is appalling for a Central Bank for many reasons.

“First, the CBN arguably has no legal powers to direct the freezing of accounts of anyone on account of a civil protest. The CBN is a regulator whose objects are defined by section 2 of the Central Bank of Nigeria (Establishment) Act 2004. Those objects are to; a) ensure monetary and price stability; (b) issue legal tender currency in Nigeria; (c) maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the legal tender currency; (d) promote a sound financial system in Nigeria; and (e) act as banker and provide economic and financial advice to the Federal Government.

Clearly the outlined “objects” of the CBN does not include actions related to financial transactions in support of legitimate expressions of political grievance, or speech. By its actions the CBN is an enabler of political and regime repression, and is actively supporting the suppression of civil expression and dissent. This is so particularly troubling given that the protests related to legitimate concerns which the government acknowledged to be genuine

“Secondly, the CBN has no power under law to act as a criminal agency or law enforcement arm of the government. If any crime is alleged to be committed by the protesters using their banking accounts, a report of the alleged crime(s) should have been made to a duly established law enforcement agency for investigation.

“Such an agency can take any action relevant to the investigation, including applying for a court order to freeze account directing that the accounts be frozen in the absence of a criminal complaint, the CBN, which has no direct relationship with the account holders, has usurped the powers of law enforcement authorities, and makes itself, illegally, accuser, investigator and prosecutor. In so doing, it acts well outside the perimeters of its statutory powers.”

A2J expressed worry that the implications of the CBN’s actions are huge and very troubling. It said that if the CBN gets away with this, then civil rights and political liberties are now greatly endangered, given that the bank can replicate the same actions against political opponents of the government, and civil society, in order to weaken them, deprive them of the means and ability to function or hold government accountable.

It described the development as an unfortunate and probably unprecedented corruption and distortion of the role of a Central bank adding “the CBN Governor is taking the Bank down a very contagious, perilous, slope.”

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