Court orders temporary forfeiture of Ikoyi flat where $43.4m was found

Justice Saliu Saidu of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday ordered the temporary forfeiture of Flat 7B Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos where the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 were found in iron cabinets and “Ghana-must-go” bags sometimes  in April this year.

The judge gave the order after the Economic and Financial aid Crimes Commission brought an ex parte application for seeking a forfeiture of the flat.

The anti-graft agency had mentioned that the wife of the sacked Director General (DG) of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, Mrs. Folashade Oke, is the owner of the flat.

The Commission had insisted that it found out that Mrs. Oke made a cash payment of $1.658m for the purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3, 2015.

The EFCC had further argued that Mrs. Oke allegedly purchased the property in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited, to which she and her son, Master Ayodele Oke Junior, were directors, and of which payment was said to have been made to one Fine and Country Limited.

The anti-graft agency explained that Mrs. Oke made the cash payment in tranches of $700,000, $650,000 and $353,700 to a Bureau de Change company, Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, which later converted the sums into N360,000,000 and subsequently paid it to Fine and Country Limited for the purchase of the said property located in Ikoyi.