By Ameh Ejekwonyilo
Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja, has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria to unfreeze the bank accounts of #EndSARS promoters.
The court on Wednesday, vacated an order it made last November, which directed banks to freeze accounts that were linked to alleged promoters of the #EndSARS protest that grounded major cities across Nigeria in 2020.
Delivering a ruling on Wednesday, Justice Mohammed, ordered all the commercial banks affected by the order, to “immediately” defreeze the accounts.
Subsequently, the judge struck out the suit that was filed against the alleged #EndSARS promoters by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and its governor.
The order came after all the parties in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1384/2020, informed the court that they had settled the issues in question by withdrawing all the processes they earlier lodged concerning the matter.
The CBN and Mr. Emiefele were represented by a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), while all the persons affected by the freezing order were represented by human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN).
At Wednesday’s proceedings, the senior lawyers told the court that their decision to withdraw all the processes in the suit was to allow the reconciliation process that is ongoing before various panels of enquiry on police brutality across the country, to progress unhindered.
After he had listened to the parties, Justice Mohammed accordingly struck out the suit.
It would be recalled that the court had on an ex-parte application that was brought before it by the apex bank and its governor, ordered banks to freeze accounts of the alleged promoters of the #EndSARS protest for a period of 180days.
