By Anthony Ochela, Abuja
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has announced the single largest asset recovery since inception in 2003 following a ruling by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory High Court on the final forfeiture of an Abuja estate of 753 duplexes and other apartments sitting on a 150,500 square metres.
This was contained in a press release signed and made available to AljazirahNigeria yesterday by EFCC’s Head, Media & Publicity,
Dele Oyewale.
The release indicated that Onwuegbuzie, on December 2, 2024 gave a ruling on a final forfeiture of the landed property which the commission described as “single largest asset recovery by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, since its inception in 2003”.
It noted that “the Estate rests on on Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja
“The forfeiture of the property to the federal government by a former top brass of the government was pursuant to EFCC’s mandate and policy directive of ensuring that the corrupt and fraudulent do not enjoy the proceeds of their unlawful activities. In this instance, the Commission 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 Constitution of the 199 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to push its case”.
Ruling on the Commission’s application for the final forfeiture of the property, held that the respondent have not shown 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”, the release read.
According to the release road to the final forfeiture of the property was paved by an interim forfeiture order, secured before the same Judge on November 1, 2024. The government official which fraudulently built the estate is being investigated by the EFCC. The forfeiture of the asset is an important modality of depriving the suspect of the proceeds of the crime.
In this vein, the justification for the forfeiture is derived from Part 2, Section 7 of the EFCC Establishment Act, which stipulates 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”.
The Commission’s Executive Chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has repeatedly described asset recovery as pivotal in the fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes and a major disincentive against the corrupt and the fraudulent.
