Court Dismisses Fresh Suit Against ICPC, Affirms Commission’s Power to Freeze Accounts
A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a fresh lawsuit challenging the power of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to impose Post-No-Debit (PND) restrictions on bank accounts, describing the action as a blatant abuse of court process.
In a recent judgment, Justice Emeka Nwite struck out the suit filed by James Erebuoye, Emon Aje Okune and Dorason Global Construction Ltd. against the ICPC, Polaris Bank Ltd. and Sterling Bank Plc. The case, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/387/2022, sought to contest PND directives earlier issued by the anti-corruption agency.
Justice Nwite held that the suit was improperly before the court, noting that the same plaintiffs had previously filed two similar actions—CV/2278/2020 and CV/2279/2020—before the FCT High Court. Those earlier suits were dismissed on February 16, 2021, when Justice Babangida Hassan ruled that the ICPC is empowered under Section 45(1) of the ICPC Act to impose a PND without first securing a court order.
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Despite appealing that ruling at the Court of Appeal, the plaintiffs initiated another round of litigation before the Federal High Court, seeking identical reliefs and claiming ₦95.2 million in damages. The court said the fresh action amounted to an attempt to re-litigate issues already decided, and to improperly invite a court of coordinate jurisdiction to review the decision of another.
ICPC, alongside Polaris Bank and Sterling Bank, had urged the court through a Preliminary Objection to decline jurisdiction, arguing that the matters raised had been conclusively determined by the FCT High Court. Justice Nwite agreed, stating that no court of equal standing can overturn or sit on appeal over the judgment of another court of similar rank.
The judge further observed that since the plaintiffs’ appeals against the 2021 decision are still pending at the Court of Appeal, the lawful course of action was to await the appellate court’s verdict rather than file a fresh suit in search of a different outcome.
Justice Nwite subsequently dismissed the suit in its entirety and awarded costs of ₦200,000 each in favour of ICPC, Polaris Bank and Sterling Bank—bringing total costs against the plaintiffs to ₦600,000.
The ruling reinforces ICPC’s statutory power to issue Post-No-Debit directives during investigations and serves as a judicial deterrent against forum shopping and repetitive litigation aimed at securing conflicting judgments.
By PRNigeria
