Banks
were gripped by the fear of a major liquidity crisis yesterday, should the
government pull out funds belonging to customers without Bank Verification
Number BVN.
Justice
Dimgba Igwe of the Federal High Court, ruling on an ex parte application
filed by the Federal Government through the Office of the Attorney-General of
the Federation, on October 21, granted the temporary forfeiture of such cash
within two weeks unless the owners justify their ownership of such accounts.
There
has been confusion over the status of such funds after the 14-day deadline.
It
was learnt that the
Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, might, at the expiration of the deadline, compel
the 21 commercial banks to provide a status report on non-BVN-linked accounts
in their books.
The
Vice-President, West African Pan African Lawyers Union PALU, Emeka Obegoru,
said if there was no suit challenging the court ruling, the banks will
have to produce a full list of their customers without BVN.
He said
failure to comply meant the banks will have to tell the court why they could
not produce the list.
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