Reactions have trailed a court order empowering the Federal Government to seize funds in BVN non-compliant bank accounts. The BVN is the biometric verification number introduced to provide data of individual account holders in various banks across the country.
Newsbreak.ng sought the reactions of some Nigerians on the judgement.
Esther Anorie, a civil servant, said that forfeiting personal accounts to the government will lead to loss of lives.
“Government should be prepared to buy coffins if they are going to take over people’s accounts because a lot of them would lose their lives as a result of heart attack. The last thing we need in this country is for government to plan a mass burial.”
A legal practitioner, Olaniyi Adekonla, who noted that forfeiture of accounts isn’t the right way to go about registration of BVN said “I don’t see the possibility of that happening, if I have money in my bank account and government decides to take over because of BVN, I will simply shoot the bank.”
Adekonla stressed that people without BVN should be encouraged to register and not have their accounts forfeited. “That’s pure 419,” he noted.
Another respondent, Onome Ovie, a student, said the Federal Government should extend the ultimatum to two years. She noted that the exercise still needs proper awareness.
“The bank does not make it easy for anyone either, the procedures involved could take a whole day to complete,” she added.
However, some other respondents backed the decision, stating that Nigerians only submit to drastic measures.
Henry Uyiosa, a Lagos businessman said, “Nigerians were already given enough time to register, but didn’t comply, and, now, government is right to take over the bank accounts.”
Dada Banklole, another businessman described the move as “a beautiful idea”.
“A bank account holder without BVN is likely to be perceived as having criminal intents since the measure is about bio data disclosure for crime prevention.
“The exercise is to correct crime rate in the country,” he stated. Bankole more so advised the “government to invest seized funds into the society.”
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