Ikoyi Billions: Court Fixes June 6 For Judgment

Ikoyi Billions: Court Fixes June 6 For Judgment

Justice Idris fixed date for judgment following an application by the EFCC for the final forfeiture of the monies after no interested party appeared in court to claim ownership of the seized sums.

The judge had in April ordered the temporary forfeiture of the monies and also gave any interested party 14 days to come before him to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The court had made the order after listening to an ex-parte application filed by the EFCC through its counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, who 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.

Oyedepo had also 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.

He said, “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.”

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

At the resumed hearing of the matter on Friday, Oyedepo told the court that in the cause of investigation, the EFCC discovered that the apartment from where the monies were discovered belong to one Chobe Ventures Limited.

He said that upon further investigation, the commission discovered that the directors of the company are, the wife of the suspended Director General of the National Intelligence Agency , Amb . Ayo Oke, Mrs Folashade Oke and her son, Ayodele Oke (junior).

The EFCC lawyer also alleged that Mrs. Folasade Oke paid $1.7 million cash to Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, a Bureau de Change, who converted the foreign currency to it Naira equivalent.

Oyedepo also claimed that Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited on behalf of Mrs. Oke paid the sum of N360 million to Fine & Country Limited for the purchase of the apartment in four installments on August 27 and 28, 2015 and on September 2nd and 3rd 2015.

He said after the money was paid a deed of assignment was signed and executed between Union Bank Plc and Fine & Country Limited after which interest in the apartment was transferred to Chobe Ventures Limited.

The lawyer also told the court that after the anti-graft agency established the link between the apartment and Chobe Ventures Limited its served the company with a copy of the application to allow it come to court to make claim to the money.

He said as “things stand now they have elected not to come to court and also no other person has come to claim the monies.

“ The circumstances leading to the discovery of the huge sums stockpiled in Flat 7 B , Osborne Towers leaves no one in doubt that the act was pursuant to an unlawful activity .

“ The very act of making cash payment of $ 1 . 6 m without going through any financial institution by Mrs . Folashade Oke for the acquisition of Flat 7 B , Osborne Towers , is a criminal act punishable by the Money Laundering (Prohibition ) Amendment Act . I refer My Lord to sections 1 (a ), 16 (d ) and 16 (2 )( b ) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition ) Amendment Act , ” a counsel for the EFCC , Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo , told the court on Friday .

“Based on this development, I will be urging the court to hold that having failed to come to court, the company had admitted to the facts as deposed to in our application and the monies is liable to be forfeited to the Federal Government, Oyedepo said.

Also on June 6, the court will rule on an application filed by a Lagos based lawyer asking the court to adjourned the proceedings pending the outcome of the Presidential Investigative Panel headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

According to him, the court should not order a permanent forfeiture of the monies since there are claims and counter claims as to ownership by the Rivers State government and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

The lawyer also prayed the court for an order directing the EFCC to furnish the court with a report of its preliminary or final investigation on the source of the monies, the owner, and how the currencies got into the building.

He is also praying for an order compelling the EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the police to immediately begin a thorough investigation of the recovered monies.

But the EFCC urged the court to dismiss application as it was filed to stall the proceedings.

Oyedepo argued that the applicant has not placed any fact before the court to allow the court rule in his favour.

He also submitted that the applicant has not shown to the court that he has any interest in the matter or that he is a member of the investigative panel headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

According to Oyedepo, Ogungbeje’s application was tantamount to an application for stay of proceedings, which he said Section 19(2) of the EFCC Act enjoined the judge to resist.

“I submit that coming to My Lord through the back door by way of this application is a violent abuse of the processes of this court. The application is standing in the way of justice and the applicant even lacks the locus standi to be a party in this suit,” Oyedepo said.