“That an interim order is hereby made granting leave to the applicants or any officer authorised by them to advertise the accounts without BVN disclosed by the bank in a widely circulated national newspaper as notice to any person or body corporate or financial institution who may have any interest in any of the said accounts to claim ownership of same within 14 days of the publication of the order and show cause why the proceeds in the account should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
The Bank Verification Number (BVN) policy made by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was launched on February 14 2014 for the purpose of registering all customers in the financial system using biometric technology, seeking to promote transparency in the nation’s financial system.
According to Sun News, Thousands of commercial bank customers who operate accounts without a Biometric Verification Number (BVN) are currently panic stricken, as the Federal High Court, Abuja, has granted federal government’s prayers to have such accounts forfeited if owners do not come forward to claim them in two weeks time.
Trouble for non-BVN account owners started on October 17 this year, when Justice Nnamdi Dimgba ruled on an ex-parte motion filed by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Justice Abubakar Malami, where he slammed a restraint order on commercial banks to desist from operating such ‘ghost’ accounts. Justice Dimgba further directed the banks to disclose the owners and the financial content of each of the accounts. The 19 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country are affected by the court orders which seek to check corruption.
He further stated that,
“That an interim order is hereby made granting leave to the applicants or any officer authorised by them to advertise the accounts without BVN disclosed by the bank in a widely circulated national newspaper as notice to any person or body corporate or financial institution who may have any interest in any of the said accounts to claim ownership of same within 14 days of the publication of the order and show cause why the proceeds in the account should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
As at the first quarter of this year, the CBN had issued 30,511,506 BVNs. However, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) says a total of 15.72 million bank accounts remain unlinked as at February 2017.
After all said and done, this is an indirect robbery, that we might not know about. One of the things we suffer till date in the hands of our Government. The money should be used to better the country, not to increase political official’s allocation, but to solve the numerous needs of the country.
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