…as court grants final forfeiture of 753 units of duplexes

…houses span 150,500 square metres

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has an order of court for a final forfeiture of 753 Units of duplexes and other apartments in an Abuja estate measuring 150,500 square metres.

New Telegraph reports that the Estate is situated on Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.

The final forfeiture order which was granted on Monday by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie, is the single largest asset recovery by the anti-graft agency since its establishment in 2023.

Investigation revealed that the choice property was fraudulently acquired by a former top official of the government (name withheld).

The forfeiture was pursuant to the EFCC’s mandate and policy directive of ensuring that the corrupt public office holders (former, and serving) do not enjoy proceeds of crime.

This newspaper reports that the lead Anti-Graft agency in the country relied on 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 to push its case.

Ruling on the Commission’s application for the final forfeiture of the property, Justice Onwuegbuzie held that the respondent did not show cause as to why he should not lose the property, “which has been reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities, the property is hereby finally forfeited to the federal government.”

It would be recalled that the EFCC had secured an interim order on November 1, 2024.

The development followed an investigation of the unnamed government official linked to the estate by the EFCC.

Part 2, Section 7 of the EFCC Establishment Act provides, among others, that that the EFCC “has power to cause investigations to be conducted as to whether any person, corporate body or organization has committed any offence under this Act or other law relating to economic and financial crimes and cause investigations to be conducted into the properties of any person if it appears to the Commission that the person’s lifestyle and extent of the properties are not justified by his source of income.”

Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has highlighted that asset recovery remains pivotal in the ongoing fight against corruption, and economic and financial crimes.

In his estimation, the fight serves as a major disincentive against the corrupt and the fraudulent.

Addressing members of the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-corruption recently, he had said, “If you understand the intricacies involved in financial crimes investigation and prosecution you will discover that to recover one billion naira is war.

So, I told my people that the moment we start an investigation we must also start asset tracing because asset recovery is pivotal in the anti-corruption fight; and one of the potent instruments that you can deploy as an anti-corruption agency for an effective fight is asset tracing and recovery.

If you allow the corrupt or those that you are investigating to have access to the proceeds of their crime, they will fight you with it.

“So one of the ways to weaken them is to deprive them of the proceeds of their crime. So, our modus operandi has changed simultaneously. The moment we begin an investigation, we begin asset tracing. That was what helped us to make our recoveries.”

The Establishment Act of the Commission places huge emphasis on asset recovery.

Subject to the provisions of Section 24 of the Act, “whenever the assets and properties of any person arrested under the Act are attached, the Commission shall apply to the court for an interim forfeiture and where a person is arrested for an offence under the Act, the Commission shall immediately trace and attach all the assets and properties of the person acquired as a result of such economic and financial crime and shall thereafter cause to be obtained an interim attachment order from the Court.

“And where the assets or properties of any person arrested for an offence under the Act has been seized or any assets or property has been seized by the Commission under the Act, the Commission shall cause an application to be made to the Court for an interim order forfeiting the property concerned to the Federal Government and the court shall, if satisfied that there is prima facie evidence that the property concerned is liable to forfeiture, make an interim order forfeiting the property to the Federal Government, which the Commission would usually escalate to earn a final forfeiture”.

This procedure was duly followed in this respect. The recovery of the asset represents a milestone in the annals of operations of the EFCC and infallible proof of the commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the anti-corruption war.

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