A Federal High Court, sitting today May 29, at Ikoyi, Lagos has again ordered an interim forfeiture of the sum of $1, 426, 175.14 million, linked to the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
In addition to forfeiting the money, Justice Ayokunle Faji also ordered the EFCC to publish the interim forfeiture order in a national newspaper.
This is to allow anyone interested in the money being sought to be forfeited to appear before the Court within 14 days and show cause why the final order of forfeiture of the said sum should not be made in favor of the federal government of Nigeria.
It would be recalled that Justice Yellim Bogoro had earlier ordered an interim forfeiture of the sums of $4,719,054 million USD, N830,875,611 million, and several properties linked to the embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
Justice Bogoro had made the order following an ex-parte argued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) counsel, Bilkisu Buhari and C.C Chineye.
Justice Faji, however, made the above orders, while granting an ex-parte motion marked FHC/L/CS/232/2024, moved by the lawyer to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Bilikisu Buhari-Bala.
The money forfeited in the interim is said to be in Donatone Limited’s account number: 2000000500 domiciled in Titan Bank Limited.
While requesting the orders from the court, Mrs. Buhari-Bala, informed the court that the orders sought are pursuant to Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-related Offences Act No. 14, 2006, and Section 44 (2)(B) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
She also told the court that the grounds for the orders are: “That this honourable court has the statutory powers under the provisions of section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 to grant the reliefs being sought.
“That the funds sought to be forfeited are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.”
