A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria to immediately unfreeze the accounts of 20 #EndSARS protesters.
The accounts were frozen by the apex bank in 2020 in the wake of the nationwide #EndSARS protests.
Ruling on Wednesday, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, issued the directive following an agreement by the legal teams of the CBN and the defendants to end the case.
Recall that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on November 4, 2020, granted the CBN’s request to freeze the accounts of 20 #EndSARS campaigners on the grounds that they had received donations to sponsor “terrorism”.
Justice Mohammed had ruled that the accounts be frozen for 90 days pending the outcome of the investigation.
The court order was addressed to the head offices of Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank of Africa and Zenith Bank.
Following the restriction, sixteen of the #EndSARS campaigners filed a suit against the Central Bank of Nigeria, seeking to overturn the freezing of the accounts.
The motion was filed in November 2020, through their lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), arguing that the court order permitting the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to freeze their accounts for 90 days was a violation of their right to fair hearing under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.
However, more than 80 days later, the Federal High Court has directed the CBN to unfreeze the protesters’ accounts.
