#EndSARS Campaigners Should Explain Use of Funds, Akeredolu Backs Freezing of Accounts

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

• A federal high court in Abuja, last week, granted the request of the CBN to freeze the accounts of 19 individuals and a public affairs company linked to the #EndSARS protests.

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has backed the freezing of bank accounts belonging to #EndSARS promoters and believes the action is not a conclusion the accounts were used to sponsor acts of treason.

The Ondo State Governor and Chairman of South-West Governors’ Forum, who made his stance known on Channels Television’s flagship programme, Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, said he doesn’t see anything wrong with the move.

Read also: CBN Gets Court Nod To Freeze Account of #EndSARS Advocates

“If for instance, my account was frozen, what would I do? All I would do is go back to court to explain. Even politicians, their accounts are sometimes frozen. You have to go to court and explain. And at the end of the day, the court will say, ‘Leave the account. The account should be de-frozen’ and you take your money back.”

“If your account is frozen, you justify why the money was there. You come to explain to what use you have put this money,” Akeredolu, who recently secured a second term in office, explained.

“If it is that ‘Okay we used this money to pay this caterer to give food to these boys when they were there. We spent money between before the hoodlums took over,’ it will be explained, people will know and the accounts will be de-frozen.”

Akeredolu also dismissed insinuations that the protesters are being charged for a treasonable offence, saying that the frozen accounts

“It is just that we (CBN) suspected this account then the owner of the account will explain,” he said, noting stressing that it “is not a conclusion that those accounts were used for acts of treason.”