The court of appeal in Abuja has upheld a judgement of a
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high
court awarding N85 million against Zenith Bank and the Nigeria Police Force
(NPF) for unlawfully freezing a customer’s account based on an invalid court
order.
In a unanimous judgement delivered on Monday, a three-member panel of the court led by Adebukola Banjoko dismissed Zenith Bank’s appeal, arguing that it lacked merit.
The appellate court affirmed the July 16, 2025 judgement
delivered by S.U. Bature, judge of the FCT high court, which awarded N60
million in general damages and N25 million as costs against the bank and the
NPF, jointly and severally.
The appeal was marked CA/ABJ/CV/1335/2025.
The suit originated from an action filed by Paulyn Abhulimen,
on behalf of her law firm, Abhulimen & Co, after its account with Zenith
Bank was frozen in 2024.
Abhulimen told the trial court that restriction was discovered
after she was unable to access the account or carry out transactions.
According to her, an official of the bank, Obi Okafor, later
informed her that Zenith Bank had placed a ‘post no bebit (PND)’ on the account
on March 13, 2024, relying on an ex parte order obtained by the NPF from a
chief magistrate court in Mararaba Gurku, Nasarawa state.
The case was filed as FCT/HC/CV/2194/2024, with Zenith Bank
and the NPF listed as defendants.
BANK ACTED ON INVALID ORDER
In the judgement affirmed by the appeal court, the judge held
that the magistrate court lacked both the territorial and substantive
jurisdiction to order the freezing of the account.
“The rationale behind seeking the said order at a magistrate
court under the Nasarawa state jurisdiction cannot be understood,” the judge
said.
“The said magistrate court lacked the territorial jurisdiction
to entertain the application.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that magistrate courts lack
the jurisdiction to entertain an application for an order to freeze a bank
account of a person and should not have entertained the said application in its
entirety.
“The legal department of the first defendant (Zenith Bank),
being lawyers, should have been aware of this position of the law and taken the
appropriate action in this situation, as they ought not to have obeyed the
court order in the first place.
“Thus, the first defendant was wrong to have placed a PND on
the account of the claimant based on the order of a court lacking the requisite
jurisdiction to do so. I so hold.”
The trial judge also held that the bank was negligent for
failing to notify its customer before freezing the account.
“The first defendant owed the claimant a duty of care of duly
informing her that her account had been frozen,” Bature said.
“The failure of the first defendant to inform the claimant of
the state of affairs on her account amounts to negligence on the part of the
first defendant and hence, a breach of duty of care and due diligence owed to
the claimant.”
The court declared that an ex parte order freezing a bank
account cannot validly subsist indefinitely and ordered Zenith Bank to
immediately lift the PND placed on Abhulimen & Co’s account.
Bature also directed the bank to publish an unreserved apology
to the claimant in two national newspapers and on its website.
With Monday’s decision, the court of appeal affirmed all the
reliefs granted by the FCT high court, including the N60 million general
damages and N25 million costs awarded against Zenith Bank and the NPF.
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