The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the temporary
forfeiture
of the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000, uncovered by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from a house in the Ikoyi area
of Lagos on Wednesday to the Federal Government.
The court, in a ruling on Thursday afternoon by Justice Muslim Hassan,
ordered that the funds be temporarily forfeited to the Federal
Government.
The judge adjourned till May 5, 2017, for anyone interested in the funds
to show up before him to show cause why the money should not be
permanently forfeited to the Federal Government. The judge made the
forfeiture order shortly after entertaining an ex parte application by a
counsel for the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo.
The EFCC had, on Wednesday evening, raided Flat 7B No. 16 Osborne Road,
Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, where it uncovered $43,449,947, £27,800
and N23,218,000 kept in iron cabinets and ‘Ghana must go’ sacks in the
said apartment which were under security locks.
Moving the ex parte application for the interim forfeiture of the money,
Oyedepo told the court that no one had come forward to claim it, adding
that the staff of one AM Facilities, managing the apartment where the
huge sums were found, could not provide the anti-graft agency with
information on the possible owner of the money.
He urged the judge to exercise the power conferred on him by Section 17
of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related Offences Act to order the
interim forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government.
Oyedepo stated, “We received an intelligence that No.16 Osborne Road,
Osborne Towers, Flat 7B, had in it various sums of money that we are
seeking to forfeit.
“The intelligence was acted upon and on getting there, we executed
Exhibited EFCC1, which is a search warrant. As God would have it sir, we
were able to recover $43, 449,947. Still in the same flat, we also
recovered £27,800. That was not all, we were also able to recover
N23,218,000.
“For security reasons and because of the volume, we did not want to
bring the money before My Lord but we have registered it as an exhibit
with the exhibit keeper and the evidence is contained in Exhibit EFCC
04.
“Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud related Offences
Act empower My Lord, where a property is found to be an unclaimed
property or where a property is found to be proceeds of an unlawful
activity, to forfeit such property in the interim.”
He pointed the judge’s attention to a portion of the court papers where
the commission had stated under oath that “no one had approached the
commission to claim the said money with reasonable evidence confirming
the genuineness of the origin of the money that we are seeking to
forfeit in the interim.”
He added, “I, therefore, humbly and most respectfully urge My Lord to
forfeit this money to the Federal Government pending when anyone, who
has the mind, come and claim the money.”
After listening to him, Justice Hassan, in a short ruling, said in view
of the facts placed before him, he was “mindful of granting the interim
relief sought” by the EFCC.
He also granted the anti-graft agency’s prayer to advertise or publish
the interim forfeiture order in any national newspaper for any concerned
party to see it.
He adjourned till May 5, 2017, for such a person to come before him to
give reasons why money should not be permanently forfeited to the
Federal Government.
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name of "feeling at home" . You still move on to sleep on the same bed
with a guy. Pls T.boss are you saying you sleep so deep that you didn't
know what was going on. Rita Dominic stop defending and worry about your status...cos menopause is not far from you. Read her tweet about AY and HP below...
