FOLLOWING the discovery of a lump sum of money by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday ordered the temporary forfeiture of the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 recovered by from an apartment in the Ikoyi area of Lagos on Wednesday.
Counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, had approached the court with an ex parte motion seeking the forfeiture of the said money.
While moving his ex parte application, Oyedepo informed the judge that nobody has so far shown up for the purposes of claiming the sums.
The EFCC lawyer added that the staff of one AM Facilities, which is seeing to the management of the apartment wherein the lump sum were discovered, could not provide any information as to the likely owner of the money.
Oyedepo urged the court to invoke its powers as enshrined in the provision of Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related Offence Act to order the interim forfeiture of the money to the FGN.
“We received intelligence that16, Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Flat 7B had in it, various sums of money.
“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 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.
Oyedepo equally called Justice Hassan’s attention to a segment of the papers filed before the court where the anti-graft agency argued under oath that, “no one had approached the commission to claim the said money with reasonable evidence confirming the genuity of the origin of the money that they are seeking to forfeit in the interim.
“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.”
Justuce Muslim Hassan ruled that the money should be temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).
Justice Hassan adjourned until May 5, 2017, for interested party (s) of the funds to show cause before the court as to why the sums should not be permanently forfeited to the FGN.
“In view of the facts placed before this court, I am mindful of granting the interim reliefs sought, by the EFCC,” the Judge ruled.
Justice Hassan equally allowed the request of the anti-graft agency to advertise or publish the interim forfeiture order in any national newspaper for any concerned party to see it.
It would be recalled that the Commission had on Wednesday evening carried out a raid on Flat 7B, 13, Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, leading to the recovery of the sums said to have been hidden in iron cabinets and “Ghana must go” sacks in the said apartment which was under security lock.
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