The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has
granted an interim order for seven
commercial banks in Nigeria to remit a total
of $793m allegedly hidden with them in
violation of the constitution and the
Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the
Federal Government. The Attorney General of
the Federation and Chief Justice of Nigeria,
Abubakar Malami, had dragged the banks
before the court, acccusing them of hiding
the said money for some unknown
government officials.
The court papers show that the affected
banks include United Bank for Africa (UBA),
Diamond Bank Plc, Skye Bank Plc, First Bank
Limited, Fidelity Bank Plc, Keystone Bank
Limited and Sterling Bank Plc. According to
court papers filed by counsel to the AGF,
Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), $367.4m was
hidden by three government agencies in
UBA; $41m was kept in a National Petroleum
Investment Management Services (NAPIMS)
fixed deposit account with Skye Bank, $
277.9m was in Diamond Bank, $18.9m in
First Bank, $24.5m in Fidelity Bank, $17m in
Keystone Bank, and $46.5m in Sterling Bank.
According to the court papers, the domiciled
funds were revenues, donations, transfers,
refunds, grants, taxes, fees, dues, tariffs etc
accruable to the Federal Government from
ministries, departments, parastatals and
agencies.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Chuka Obiozor
directed the banks to remit the monies to
the designated CBN Asset Recovery Dollars
Account immediately. He warned that the
remittance order would be made permanent
on August 8th unless anyone comes
forward to explain to him why the funds
should not be forfeited permanently.
