Court orders Ecobank to pay N25m damages to detainee

An FCT High Court has ordered Ecobank Nigeria Limited to pay the sum of N25 million in damages to an EFCC detainee.

However, the bank has filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, challenging the judgement.

The court had in March upheld the submission of Stanley Chinonso Okoroji that the freezing of his account without court order or prior notice was a violation of his fundamental rights guaranteed under Sections 43 and 44 (1) of the Nigerian

Constitution.

Okoroji, through his Counsel, Amaka Eke, had informed the court that he was on December 17, 2018, arrested by the police in Owerri, Imo State, after returning from Malaysia where he was studying on the claim that his description fitted that of an alleged kidnapper.

The police initially accused him of obtaining property by false pretence and later transferred him to the EFCC in Abuja.

The lawyer argued that the freezing of his account based on a letter by the EFCC violated his rights to acquire and own both moveable and immoveable property anywhere in Nigeria under Sections 43, 44(1) and (2) of the Nigerian Constitution.

In the appeal by its Counsel, Afam Osigwe, the bank is contending that its action “was not in any way malicious, high handed or acted in any way to spite the applicant” but meant to “preserve the res (subject matter) of a criminal trial pending the hearing and determination of the application in the suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/227/2019 dated February 25, 2019.”