Court grants EFCC request to freeze Germany-based Nigerian, Cyriacus Njoku’s account
The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to freeze a United Bank for Africa (UBA) account belonging to Njoku Nnamdi Cyriacus,, a Nigerian residing in Germany, over an alleged criminal breach of trust.
Justice Ekerete Akpan approved the EFCC’s request on Wednesday after its counsel, G.I. Ndeh, moved an ex-parte motion filed on June 17 and dated June 16.
“We have an affidavit of 17 paragraphs and two Exhibits labelled as Exhibit EFCC-1 and Exhibit EFCC-2. We have also attached a written address,” Ndeh told the court while urging it to grant the application.
In a brief ruling, Justice Akpan ordered the freezing of the account for an initial period of 14 days.
“This application is granted in terms of prayers 1 and 2.
The order shall remain in force only for 14 days commencing from today and the order shall elapse after 14 days,” the judge declared.
According to the motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1178/2025, the EFCC sought the following reliefs:
“An order of this honourable court directing the freezing of the funds in United Bank for Africa (UBA) Account Number: 3003068433, belonging to Njoku Nnamdi Cyriacus, pending the conclusion of investigation and/or possible prosecution.”
“An order directing United Bank for Africa to place a ‘Post No Debit’ (PND) restriction on the said account forthwith pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
In an affidavit sworn by Ufuoma Ezire, a legal assistant with the EFCC, the commission stated it received a petition on January 28 via email from Mary Njoku, a Japanese resident of Nigerian descent.
She accused Cyriacus Njoku of criminal breach of trust and financial fraud. According to her, she had sponsored Njoku’s education in Nigeria and Germany for over two years and later entrusted him to facilitate her Canadian tuition payment using his UBA domiciliary account.
“That in 2023, she secured admission into an institution in Canada and based on her existing relationship of trust with the suspect, she requested him to assist her in facilitating the payment of her tuition fees from Nigeria, using his domiciliary account in United Bank for Africa.”
She transferred a total of $14,000 in two tranches—on June 27 and June 30, 2023—expecting the suspect to remit the funds to the Canadian school.
However, after her visa application was denied, the school refunded $13,353.90 into the same UBA account on May 27, 2024.
“That the respondent (Cyriacus) despite multiple requests, has failed, refused, and neglected to refund the said sum of $13,353.90 to the petitioner and has since ceased all communication with her,” Ezire stated.
The EFCC said its investigation confirmed that the refund remains in Njoku’s account, with the total balance at $13,386.24 as of April 30, including interest.
“That the statement of account issued by UBA, annexed herewith, confirms the lodgement of the two tranches of funds and the current credit balance in the said account.”
The anti-graft agency argued that the funds are suspected to be proceeds of criminal breach of trust and must be preserved to prevent dissipation.
“The commission seeks the order of this honourable court to freeze the said account to prevent the dissipation of the funds therein and secure the subject matter of investigation.
It is in the interest of justice to grant this application in order to prevent further financial injury to the petitioner and to preserve the funds pending the outcome of investigation,” the affidavit read.
