Barely 24 hours after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, uncovered the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 at an apartment in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, a Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered an interim forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government.
The total value of the money at the Central Bank official exchange rate is more than N13 billion. Justice Muslim Hassan in his ruling today, 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 commission was also directed to publish in any National Daily for anyone to show cause within 14 days why the order of final forfeiture should not be granted. The Interim Forfeiture was obtained pursuant to Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related offences Act 2006. Operatives of the Commission had, on Wednesday, April 12, 2017, stormed a residential building on the seventh floor of a four-bedroom apartment on Osborne Towers located on 16,Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, where the large sums of money was uncovered. The operation followed a whistle-blower confidential alert received by the Commission office in Lagos in the early hours of yesterday. The case was adjourned to May 5, 2017.
