Justice S. U. Bature of a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high court has imposed a fine of N85 million against Zenith Bank and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for freezing one of the bank’s customers’ accounts by relying on an invalid court order.
The judgment held that the bank’s decision to freeze the customer’s account, based on a supposed order by a Magistrate Court but without notifying the said customer, was illogical and a betrayal of the banker-customer relationship between the parties.
Therefore, the court ordered the bank to immediately unfreeze the account domiciled in its branch at 63 Usuma Street, Maitama, opposite Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
Justice Bature also ordered the defendants to publish a public apology to the customer, Abhulimen & Co, in two national newspapers and on its website.
Bature noted that it was unfortunate that a major financial institution like Zenith Bank, with a Legal Department supposedly manned by lawyers, would claim to have acted based on an invalid order by a Magistrate Court that lacked the jurisdiction to entertain any banking-related case, including issuing orders for the freezing of a bank account.
The judgment, sighted on Thursday, was on a suit marked: FCT/HC/CV/2194/2024 filed by Paulyn O. Abhulimen (SAN), with Zenith Bank and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as defendants.
Abhulimen had sued through the law firm of Kehinde & Partners LP, claiming that in early 2024, after being unable to access her firm’s account—Abhulimen & Co—and make transactions with it, she discovered that the bank had placed a “post-no-debit (PND)” on it.
She claimed to have subsequently contacted an official of the bank in charge of the account, Obi Okafor, who told her about the development. Following this, the bank, on March 13, 2024, claimed to have frozen the account based on an order obtained by the NPF from a Chief Magistrates Court in Mararaba Gurku, Nasarawa State.
Justice Bature, in the judgment, found that the bank acted on an invalid order made by a court that lacked the requisite jurisdiction.