Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, on Tuesday, said the court froze accounts of promoters of the recent #EndSARS protest that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) accused of firms that are engaging in money laundering and sabotaging the economy and not individual accounts.
According to the CJ: “Three months before the protest, the CBN kept bringing applications almost in their hundreds based on what they call deliberate resolve to ruin the economy through money laundering”.
He spoke in response to the remark by the National President of the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA), Olumide Akpata, who had in a speech at a special court session to mark the commencement of its 2020/2021 legal year, slammed the court for freezing bank accounts of some persons that allegedly played a key role during the #EndSARS protest.
The NBA President, whose speech was read by Yusuf Kadiri, said: “I must remind us of the dwindling hopes of the common man in the Judiciary.
“Following the #Endsars protests, this Honourable court was involved in the press, in a rather uncomplimentary manner on account of freezing of bank accounts of individuals and organisations believed to have bankrolled the process”.
Reacting to NBA’s statement, Justice Tsoho, said that contrary to media reports, the CBN, approached motions to freeze the bank accounts, three months before the protest.
“So if it was the #Endsars people that were involved in the undercover activities, then it is unfortunate for people to begin to call and vilify the court, making damaging allegations against the court.
“If steps were not taken at that time, the Nigerian economy would have collapsed, that is to say about three months ago, the dollar would have exchanged far above N500”, he added.
It would be recalled that the CBN applied to the Court and which was granted to freeze the accounts of 20 persons that were said to be promoters of the #EndSARS protest in five banks in the country.
Meanwhile, giving account of activities of the high court in the last legal year, Justice Tsoho, disclosed that a total of 10, 464 cases were brought by litigants in a period of 10 months spanning between September 2019 to June 2020.
Out said the cases comprised of 2, 851 civil cases, 2, 599 criminal cases, 3, 049 motions and 1,965 fundamental rights applications.
The CJ further disclosed that the total number of cases disposed of during the last legal year was 8, 585 cases, adding that a total of 123, 513 cases are still pending before the court.
Meanwhile, the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, BOSAN, in a statement at the event, said attacks on courts by hoodlums during the #EndSARS protests, should be blamed on the sluggish justice system in the country.
The body of SANs, in its speech by J. K. Gadzama, SAN, said: “It is easy to dismiss this as the work of hoodlums, but it is worthwhile to consider that it signals a general and growing disenchantment with the entire justice architecture.
“The man on the street is not particularly concerned with the caseload of the judge or magistrate; all he knows is that the system is sluggish. He does but understand or appreciate the necessity of procedural rules, but he feels it very keenly when a hearing on the merits is truncated on purely technical grounds. These are only a few of this disenchantment”, BOSAN added.
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