Court to rule on Pinnacle’s suit against ICPC Dec 14

The Federal High Court, Abuja, has fixed December 14 for ruling on a motion on notice, challenging the freezing of Pinnacle Communications Limited’s bank account by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged N2.5 billion fraud.

Pinnacle was the only private licensed signal distributor for the implementation of the transition from analog to digital terrestrial television broadcasting in Nigeria, in line with the 2012 government’s White Paper that approved more signal distributors be licensed in addition to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Consequently, in 2014, Pinnacle emerged the successful bidder out of nine companies that applied for the licence. But the ICPC noted that the company was fraudulently recommended to the minister of information and culture for the release of N2.5 billion against the guidelines in the white paper.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba fixed December 14, after hearing the submissions of counsel in the matter. Moving his motion on notice, the plaintiff’s counsel urged the court to lift the order of post-no-debit placed on the account of Pinnacle with Zenith Bank. The plaintiff counsel, N. Ekanem (SAN), told the court that ICPC had not adduced cogent reasons the order freezing the account should be granted.