YAHAYA IBRAHIM
Justice Saliu Saidu of  Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday ordered the permanent forfeiture of Flat 7B situated at 16 Osborne Road, Ikoyi, where the sum of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,00 were discovered, to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
 
The flat where the money was discovered, was said to belong to Mrs. Folashade Oke, the wife of the sacked Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke.
 
The money neatly packed in iron cabinets and “Ghana must go” was discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the said property on April 12,2017.
 
Justice Saidu, gave the order of final forfeiture of the flat to the federal government of Nigeria, after dismissing Union Bank Plc’s application as the owner of the flat.
 
The bank had on January 11, through its application, filed and argued by its lawyer, Mr. E. N. Ayuba, had urged the court not to finally forfeit the flat to the Federal Government of Nigeria, as well as urged the court to discharge earlier interim order made on the flat on November 9, 2017.
The bank’s lawyer, Ayuba, had told Justice Saidu that his client filed the motion seeking the discharge of the interim order to protect its interest in the property.In an affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by one Alfred Olukayode Edun, the bank argued that the forfeited flat was part of the property situated at 16, Osborne Rd, Ikoyi, Lagos, belonging to one, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu, by virtue of a Certificate of Occupancy  dated 27th September, 2009 and registered as 97/97/2009 in the Lands Registry Office, Alausa, Lagos. The bank also said Alhaji Muazu has already mortgaged the entire property to it by virtue of Tripartite Deed of Legal Mortgage dated November 1, 2011, in order to secure a loan granted to Tripple A. Properties & Investment Ltd.

The affidavit further claimed that the original titled deeds of the property has been vested in it while the loan is yet to be liquidated till date despite the fact that its tenor has expired. 

The bank further claimed it sold the property to Chobe Ventures Ltd to liquidate the loan.

 

But the EFCC, through its team of lawyers led by Rotimi Oyedepo, had urged the court to discountenance Union Bank Plc’s claim.

In urging the court for final forfeiture, Oyedepo, had argued that Section 17 of The Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 empowers the court to order the final forfeiture of the property.

He added that Section 44 (2) (k) of the Constitution also permits the take-over of a property in view of an enquiry.

In its counter affidavit to the application, the EFCC had argued that the bank lacks the ‘locus standi’ to challenge the forfeiture of property ‘reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities of Ambassador Ayo Oke and Mrs. Folashade Oke’.
The anti-graft agency in the affidavit deposed to by one, Mohammed Chiroma, argued that the funds used to acquire the property sought to be forfeited in the name of Chobe Ventures Limited belong to the Federal Government but was fraudulently converted to the company’s use. 
In his judgement on the application on Friday, Justice Saidu described the Union Bank Plc, as a busybody, that has no interest in the property sought to be forfeited.
The judge then ordered that the property be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria, adding that all parties have right of appeal.