Court Orders Forfeiture Of Recovered $43m, £27,800, N23m To FG


Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered the temporary forfeiture of the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, from an apartment in the Ikoyi area of Lagos on Wednesday to the federal government.Justice Hassan made the order after listening to an ex-parte application filed by the EFCC through its counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo praying the court that the funds be forfeited to the federal government pending investigation.

Oyedepo had told the court that the commission received intelligence report from an undisclosed source that various sums of money was kept in an apartment located at 16, Osborne Road, Ikoyi.

The lawyer also told the court that upon the receipt of the information, the anti-graft agency approach the court to obtain a search warrant to enable it conduct a search on the apartment.

Oyedepo further submitted that after the search the EFCC recovered the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 found in a four-bedroom apartment on the 7th floor of the residential building at Osborne Towers.

He also 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 Offence Act to order the interim forfeiture of the money to the federal government.

Oyedepo also claimed that the EFCC reasonably believed that the money was part of proceeds of unlawful activity.

“Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud related Offences Act empowered 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,” Oyedepo said.

He drew 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 genuiness of the origin of the money that we are seeking to forfeit in the interim.”

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