A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) misled the court into freezing the accounts of some individuals of the ENDSARs protesters by making the court believe that some grave offenses had been committed and would require time to run an investigation.
The human rights lawyer, who made this known while speaking on Channels Television breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, advised the apex bank to stay out of politics and stick to the business of banking.
Falana, in his reaction to the unfreezing of the accounts belonging to 20 #EndSARS promoters, argued that the CBN went out of its way.
“I do hope that sufficient lessons have been learnt particularly by the central bank to desist from jumping into the political arena by attempting to freeze the accounts of people who are involved in the struggle one way or the other against the government,” he stated.
The lawyer described the move by the bank as an act of intimidation, noting that no offense was committed and no attempt was made by the central bank to investigate any of the individuals.
Falana urged the CBN to be more circumspect in the future, adding that the individuals whose accounts were frozen will be going to court to challenge the “gross violation” of their rights to their property.
One of such individual who had her accounts frozen by the apex court without any justification is Rinu Oduala who said she is suing the CBN for wrongfully accusing her of money laundering and terrorism without any investigations for three months.
