On August 9, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja granted an order to freeze over $37 million in cryptocurrency believed to be owned by some organizers of the #EndBadGovernance protests.
The order was issued following an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on August 8, and heard on August 9.
In the application, the EFCC described the frozen assets as proceeds of money laundering and terrorism financing. The court proceedings, conducted without any objections as it was an ex parte hearing, involved a brief exchange between Justice Nwite and EFCC’s lawyer, O.S. Ujam.
Justice Nwite’s ruling included a freeze on several cryptocurrency wallets. The largest of these holds USDT37 million (USDT37,061,867,869.3), equivalent to the same amount in U.S. dollars. The other wallets contain USDT967, USDT90, and USDT443,512.37 respectively.
While the EFCC did not disclose the identities of the wallet owners in the application, the federal government has connected them to the suspected organizers of the recent protests.
An affidavit supporting the application was sworn by EFCC official Jimada Yusuf, affirming that the assets belonged to individuals under investigation for money laundering and terrorism financing. The affidavit was part of the application presented to the court.
During the August 9 hearing, Ujam urged the court to maintain the freeze on the wallets until the conclusion of the investigation and potential prosecution. With no opposing parties present, the judge granted the application as requested.
The #EndBadGovernance protests, which spanned from August 1 to 10, were driven by widespread discontent over rising living costs, economic hardship, and general governance issues in Nigeria.
