Court Upheld CBN’s Directives On Bank Charges

A court case challenging the Central Bank of Nigeria’s new policy on account maintenance fee has been set aside by a Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Naija News understands that Olumide Babalola, a legal practitioner in the state had contended that the apex bank’s policy and guidelines violated his fundamental human rights.

However, Mr Adeleke Agbola, the CBN counsel while defending the suit maintained that the plaintiff lacked legal capacity to institute the suit on a policy that affects the public.

Agbola again noted that Babalola failed to show that the CBN acted in bad faith or breached any law by issuing the guidelines. After hearing from both sides, the court judge, Justice M Shittu Abubakar, on Wednesday dismissed the suit for lacking in merit.

The judge held that guidelines issued by the CBN, authorizing the deduction of Current Account maintenance charges was lawful and within the statutory powers of CBN. The Court agreed with the argument presented by the CBN Counsel that the Plaintiff has not shown that his client breached any known law by issuing the guidelines.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has listed three important steps the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should have taken in handling its recent ban on cryptocurrency transactions.

Naija News reports that on Friday, the apex bank ordered banks in the country to shut down the accounts of cryptocurrency traders.