Court Orders Final Forfeiture Of 43m, £27,800, N23m Recovered By EFCC In Ikoyi
Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos Tuesday ordered the final 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 to the federal government.
Justice Hassan made the order after no interested party appeared, as directed by the court, to show cause why the permanent forfeiture order should not be absolute.
The judge had on April 13 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.
The anti-graft agency had claimed that the monies were stored in iron cabinets and “Ghana-must-go” bags in the apartment.
Part of the earlier order of the court was that any interested party should appear before him within 14 days to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
That ultimatum expired on April 27, but when the court was about to deliver judgment on May 5, 2017, a private legal practitioner, Mr. Olukoya Ogungbeje, appeared before the judge, with an application, urging the judge to suspend the final forfeiture proceedings pending when a three-man panel constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari in relation to the funds would submit its report.
While dismissing the application on Tuesday, Justice Hassan described it as totally strange and unknown to law, noting that having not appealed against the interim forfeiture order, Ogungbeje had no right to seek a stay of proceedings in the case.
The court also described the lawyer as a meddlesome interloper and a busybody, adding that his application was strange to law.
The judge advised Ogungbeje to explore the Freedom of Information Act if he wanted information from the Federal Government on the findings of the Osinbajo’s panel.
After dismissing, Ogungbeje’s application, the judge then issued an order permanently forfeiting the funds to the Federal Government, noting that no one had appeared to show cause why the permanent forfeiture order should not be made.
Justice Hassan held in his judgment, “I am in complete agreement with the submission of the learned counsel for the applicant (EFCC) that the property sought to be attached are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities and that by every standard this huge sum of money is not expected to be kept without going through a designated financial institution; more so, nobody has shown cause why the said sum should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Having regard to the foregoing, I have no other option but to grant this application as prayed.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, I hereby make the following orders: 1. A final order is made forfeiting the sums of $43,449,947 found by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at Flat 7B of No. 16 Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, which sum is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Justices Hassan held.
However, efforts made by the EFCC counsel, Idris Mohammed to get the judge to award a cost of N5m against Ogungbeje for wasting the judicial time of the court with his application was rejected.
The EFCC had, while arguing the application for final forfeiture order on May 5, named the wife of the NIA Director General, Mrs. Folashade Oke as the owner of Flat 7B, No. 13, Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, where the funds were recovered.
The EFCC said 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.
She was said to have purchased the property in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited, to which she and her son, Master Ayodele Oke Junior, were directors.
Payment for the purchase of the flat was said to have been made to one Fine and Country Limited.
The EFCC stated 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 property.
The anti-graft had tendered the receipt issued by Fine and Country Limited to Chobe Ventures Limited as an exhibit before the Federal High Court in Lagos, where it is seeking an order of final forfeiture of the recovered money to the Federal Government.
“The circumstances leading to the discovery of the huge sums stockpiled in Flat 7B, Osborne Towers, leaves no one in doubt that the act was pursuant to an unlawful activity.
“The very act of making cash payment of $1.6m without going through any financial institution by Mrs. Folashade Oke for the acquisition of Flat 7B, 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.
In an affidavit filed before the court, a Detective Inspector with the EFCC, Mohammed Chiroma, stated that “Chobe Ventures Limited is not into any business but was merely incorporated to retain proceeds of suspected unlawful activities of Mrs. Folashade Oke.”
While urging Justice Hassan to order the permanent forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government, the EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, had argued that the fact that Flat 7B, Osborne Towers was purchased in a criminal manner, made the N13bn recovered therein “extremely suspicious to be proceeds of unlawful acts.”
The lawyer noted that despite the newspaper advertisement of the initial order of April 13, 2017 temporarily forfeiting the money to the Federal Government, no one showed up in court to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
Oyedepo also observed that Chobe Ventures Limited, in whose apartment the huge sums were recovered, did not come to court to challenge the forfeiture order, despite being served with the motion on notice at its registered address of No. 18, Ogunmodede Street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos.
Oyedepo said the court papers were received at the stated address, which is also the house of the Okes, by one Bola, who signed for them on May 3, 2017.
“The failure of Chobe Ventures Limited, in whose custody these properties we are seeking to forfeit were found, to show cause before My Lord today why the property (money) should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria, Your Lordship should hold that Chobe Ventures Limited has admitted all the facts deposed to in our affidavit and order the final forfeiture of the property to the Federal Government.”
