Justice
Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, on Friday ordered the formal
forfeiture of N449,597,000 (about N450 million) found by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in LEGICO Shopping mall, Victoria Island,
Lagos to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The EFCC had on April 8 said it uncovered a
large sum of suspected laundered money to the tune of N448,850,000 in the
Shopping Plaza.
Mr. Aikawa had on April 19 ordered an interim
forfeiture of the said money uncovered by the commission.
The order came following a motion ex-parte
filed by Rotimi Oyedepo, a prosecutor with the EFCC pursuant to Section 17 of
the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14, 2006.
Mr. Aikawa in his ruling last month, ordered
anyone interested in the money to appear before him at the next adjourned date
to show reason why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal
Government.
The judge also directed the commission to
publish in any national daily for anyone to show cause within 14 days why the
order for the final forfeiture should not be granted.
However, in his motion on notice at the resumed
hearing on Friday, Idris Mohammed, counsel to the EFCC urged the court to issue
a final order forfeiting the total sum of N449,597,000 to the federal
government.
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