The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the judgment of a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court awarding a total of N85 million against Zenith Bank Plc and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for unlawfully freezing a customer’s account on the strength of an invalid court order.
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In a unanimous judgment delivered on Monday, a three-member panel of the court led by Justice Adebukola Banjoko dismissed Zenith Bank’s appeal for lacking in merit.
The appellate court affirmed the judgment of 16 July 2025 delivered by Justice S.U. Bature 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 Mrs. Paulyn Abhulimen, on behalf of her law firm, Abhulimen & Co, after its account with Zenith Bank was frozen in 2024. The matter was filed at the trial court as FCT/HC/CV/2194/2024, with Zenith Bank and the NPF listed as defendants.
The claimant told the trial court that she discovered the restriction only when she was unable to access the account or carry out transactions.
According to her, an official of the bank, Mr. Obi Okafor, later informed her that Zenith Bank had placed a Post No Debit (PND) restriction on the account on 13 March 2024, acting on an ex parte order obtained by the police from a Chief Magistrate Court sitting at Mararaba Gurku, Nasarawa State.
In the judgment now affirmed on appeal, the trial judge held that the magistrate court lacked both territorial and substantive jurisdiction to make an order freezing 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.”
He went further on the question of competence: “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.”
In what is the most consequential part of the decision for banking practice, the court held that the bank could not shelter behind the order it had acted upon.
“The legal department of the first defendant, 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,” the judge held.
“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 further held that the bank was negligent in failing to inform its customer that her account had been restricted.
“The first defendant owed the claimant a duty of care of duly informing her that her account had been frozen,” Justice Bature held.
“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 also declared that an ex parte order freezing a bank account cannot validly subsist indefinitely, and ordered Zenith Bank to immediately lift the Post No Debit restriction placed on the account of Abhulimen & Co.
Justice Bature additionally 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 has affirmed all the reliefs granted by the FCT High Court, including the N60 million in general damages and the N25 million in costs awarded against Zenith Bank and the Nigeria Police Force.
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