Police Accused of Forging Court Orders to Get Bank Account Frozen

Tobi Soniyi Abuja

Founder of Policing Nigeria Awareness Initiative (PNAI), Chief Egbe Akparakwu Adun, has accused the police of forging a court order to get his bank account with Fidelity Bank frozen.

His lawyer, Mr Leo Ekong, is therefore calling on the authorities to investigate how the police meant to enforce the law are now breaching the law

Ekong disclosed this in separate letters‎ to the Presidency, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, National Security Adviser (NSA), Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, National Assembly, heads of Public Complaints Commission (PCC) as well as the Human Rights Commission (HRC).

The letter dated July 4 and signed his lawyer‎, Leo Ekong of Charles Uhegbu & Co.; was titled, ‘Complaint of forgery activities by the office of the Inspector General of Police”.

The lawyer stated that the police had applied to a Federal High Court via an application dated May 13 and filed on May 14 asking the court to grant power to the Inspector General of Police or any police officer authorised by him to direct banks shown in the schedule to supply any information and to produce the account opening documents, the statement of account of certain individuals and also to stop all actions and payments operations or transactions with those people who own the accounts.

The court, Justice Gabriel Kolawole granted the order authorising the police to freeze accounts belonging to certain individuals pending the outcome of their investigation.

According to the lawyer, the police, upon obtaining the court order, allegedly gone ahead to smuggle additional eight accounts, some of which belonged to Adun into the order.
Adun’s accounts with Fidelity Bank Plc were suspended following instructions from the police and supported with the alleged forged court order.

When‎ Adun approached his bank, seeking to know why his accounts were suspended, he was shown the order of the court. He then proceeded to apply for a Certified True Copy of the said order only to discover that his account was neither contained in the original schedule to the court nor in the original court order.

The letter reads in part: “According to our clients, each time he sent his assigns to operate the above accounts, they were told that the accounts have been suspended. This has caused our client untold hardship and embarrassment.

“Having been so briefed, we had our client’s instruction to write the banks requesting for information as to why our client’s accounts have been suspended without any notice.
“On June 4, a letter was served on our chambers by Fidelity Bank Plc, stating the reason for suspending our client’s accounts.

“On seeing the said letter, our chambers became curious and decided to write a letter dated June 17 to the reference court, requesting the Certified True Copies of Records of Proceedings including the alleged court order that placed a restriction on our client’s accounts.

“On recieving our letter, the court inquired from us via a letter dated June 24, requesting to know the source of the attached court order.

“On June 30, we wrote another letter to inform the court that the alleged court order was obtained from Fidelity Bank Plc following our letter dated June 13, requesting to know why our client’s accounts were restricted.

“On that same day, the court issued us with the Certified True Copies of Records of Proceedings including the genuine court Order which had nothing whatsoever to do with any of our client’s accounts alleged to have been frozen.”

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