A Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) sitting in Abuja, on Monday, restrained MultiChoice Nigeria Limited from increasing its tariffs and cost of products and services scheduled to begin on May 1.
The three-member tribunal, presided over by Saratu Shafii, gave the interim order following an ex-parte motion moved by Ejiro Awaritoma, counsel for the applicant, Festus Onifade.
The tribunal, in a ruling, restrained Multi-Choice from going ahead with an impending price increase scheduled to take effect from May 1, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed before it.
“The 1st defendant is hereby restrained from taking any step(s) that may negatively affect the rights of the claimant and other consumers in respect of the suit pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice,” Shafii declared.
She, therefore, directed all parties in the suit to appear before tribunal on May 7 at 10 a.m. for the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Onifade, in the suit marked: CCPT/OP/2/2024, had dragged Multi-Choice Nigeria Ltd and Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) before the tribunal.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has okayed an interim order to freeze about 1 146 bank accounts allegedly linked to unauthorized foreign exchange transactions by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission.
Justice Emeka Nwite ordered that the identified accounts belonging to individuals and companies should be frozen for at least 90 days to allow the federal government to conclude its investigations and that they could have been used for money laundering and terrorism financing.
“It is at this moment ordered as follows: That the applicant’s application is hereby granted as prayed.
“That an order of this honourable court is at this moment made freezing the bank accounts stated in the schedule below, which accounts are owned by various individuals who are currently being investigated in a case involving the offences of unauthorised dealing in foreign exchange, money laundering and terrorism financing to the extent that the investigation will be for 90 (Ninety) days,” the court held.
The order, dated April 24 but sighted by Journalists on Monday, followed an ex parte application brought before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The anti-graft agency had, in the motion ex-parte marked FHC/ABJ/CS/543/2024, maintained that the accounts it listed in a schedule it attached to the court process were the subject of its ongoing investigations.
Source: Daily Post
