Tina Amanda
A Human Rights Advocate and a lawyer, Higher King has condemned the freezing of bank accounts of #EndSARS promoters by the Federal Government, describing it as illegal.
The follows the freezing of the account of a Port Harcourt-based #EndSARS promoter by the federal government on the 15th of October.
Higher King who stated this in an interview with our correspondent, said it is only the law court that has legal rights to issue an order for the bank account of an individual to be freezed.
According to him, it is an abuse of human rights for the Federal Government or Central Bank of Nigeria to give directives for an account to be placed on a post-no-debit restriction.
“It is illegal because it is only the court of law that has the right to give an order for someone’s bank account to be frozen. The actions of freezing people’s accounts by DSS and the Nigerian Police before now have equally been stopped.
“My question is; does the Central Bank of Nigeria give directives to commercial banks in this kind of situation, if that is true, then I condemn it. It is wrong, it is an abuse of human rights, the law does not permit that.
“The President of Nigeria does not have right to call my bank to freeze my bank account, no Governor of a State has such right, nobody has the right to do that. We are in a country that operate under the rule of law.
“If anybody has committed a crime or the Economic Financial Crime Commission EFCC feels there is suspected money that have entered an account, all they need do is to go to court and obtain an order”
He however urged the alleged victims to press for legal actions in court.
“The victims have right to go to court to enforce their right, we are in a democracy. Everyone has a right to the privacy of his bank account, there is what is called banker-customer relationship and it is a judicial relationship.
“The Banks protect the customer against such, any bank that falls prey to an offence like that must pay, for it that is the law”
