A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has frozen 13 bank accounts suspected to be owned by Henry Okocha on allegations of links to terrorism.
The order was issued by Justice Peter Lifu on Friday.
This comes after an ex-parte application filed before the court by the Department of State Services (DSS).
The DSS, through its counsel, Yunus Umar, filed an ex-parte application, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1036/2024, under sections 5 and 81 of the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022.
The 8-paragraph affidavit to the court held that the suspect received huge amounts of money amounting to millions of naira in the accounts, funds suspected to be gains of terrorism.
Umar prayed the court to grant an order freezing Okocha’s accounts for 90 days so as to give the DSS ample time to conduct forensic investigation into his alleged acts of terrorism.
The alleged terrorist’s bank accounts span from Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa, Resolut Limited, Union Bank of Nigeria, Providus Bank, Palmpay Limited, and First Bank of Nigeria.
Justice Lifu granted the DSS’s request, but cut down the 90day request to 60.
According to Justice Lifu in his ruling, the bank accounts will remain “frozen for 60 days to enable the applicant to conduct the necessary forensic investigations into the alleged acts of terrorism by the defendant.”
The suspect is presently in the custody of the DSS pending the resolution of the case