House Extends Deadline for Committee to Probe Freezing of Accounts

Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives has added additional two weeks to enable the committee investigating the allegations of unjustified, illegal and premeditated freezing of over 5,000 bank accounts of some customers by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to submit an interim report.

The decision to extend the deadline followed a point of order raised by Hon. Mark Gbillah.

The House had on October 21, 2020, while adopting a motion sponsored by Gbillah, called on the CBN to review its decisions that led to the freezing of the accounts.

The House said the review should be done within 48 hours and the accounts unfreeze within seven days.

It also directed the CBN to unfreeze accounts frozen without documentary proof of petition or reason for suspicion of involvement in the commission of a crime.

The House mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to immediately invite all stakeholders to a public investigation of circumstances surrounding the freezing of all accounts by CBN.

However, almost nine months later, the committee is yet to present its report, contrary to the provisions of Order 18, Rule 3 (1)(g) of the Standing Orders of the House, which states that such assignments should not exceed the maximum of 60 days.

However, the motion sponsor, Hon. Mark Gbillah, raised a point of order based on the breach of his privilege.

He urged the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to refer the matter to an ad-hoc committee to expedite action on it since the House Committee on Banking seems to be taking too much time in handling the referral.

Reacting, the Chairman House Committee on Banking, Hon. Victor Nwokolo, called for an extension of time for the committee to do its job, saying that the issue is being investigated and a report will be laid soon before the House.

He said: “The matter is more than what we can say openly, it is complicated and I have been to EFCC three times and was told there’s an issue. It would be ok to do this in an exclusive session.”

Also, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, called for a little more time for the committee to round off the investigation.

In his response, the speaker said the committee should have tendered a report before the expiration of the stipulated time. He, however, approved the extension of the deadline by two weeks for the committee to submit its report.