The Nation Newspaper

Tag: forfeiture

  • BVN: Anxiety as over 5m microfinance banks’ customers risk account forfeiture

    There is palpable apprehension amongst customers of microfinance banks, especially those who are yet to enrol for the compulsory Biometric Verification Number (BVN) following the expiration of the deadline penultimate Friday.

    Investigation by The Nation revealed that an estimated five million accounts may be shutdown on account of non-compliance with the BVN order in line with the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    Speaking with a cross-section of customers who asked not t o be named because of the sensitive nature of the report, they told our correspondent that they were worried about the fate of their accounts since they couldn’t regularise their accounts as required by the apex bank.

    It would be recalled that the CBN extended the BVN enrolment to December 31, 2017 instead of July 31, 2017 due to the various challenges encountered in the early stage of deployment of the joint CBN/NIBSS support to members of the National Association of Microfinance Banks, NAMB.

    Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Mrs. Tokunbo Martins, had announced the extension, saying that all customers without BVN linked to their account would no longer be entitled to debit operations effective from January 1, 2018.

    Considering the fact that the commercial banks barred their customers from using accounts without BVN, a lot of customers with microfinance banks have had course to worry about the fate of their account if the BVN order is enforced.

    However, speaking with The Nation at the weekend, Rogers Nwoke, Managing Director, Hasal Microfinance Bank, who confirmed that the deadline for microfinance banks’ customers have since elapsed, said there shouldn’t be any anxiety whatsoever.

    “This is because the microfinance banks have since acquired BVN machines. The deadline has passed and the CBN hasn’t come out with any statement. But even if they go ahead and shutdown operations on accounts that don’t have BVN, our expectation is that if a customer walks into a microfinance banks and wants to do transaction but cannot do it because he doesn’t have a BVN, he would be led to a BVN machine to do his enrolment. So once the enrolment is done, he is free to run his account. So there shouldn’t be any reason for any anxiety.”

    Nwoke who is also the National President of the National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB) who observed that the deadline for the commercial banks has been there for the past two-years or more, was quick to add that nobody lost money because they didn’t have BVN except those who deliberately choose not to enrol and put their BVNs or tie their BVN to their accounts.

    “If anybody who is genuinely running a transaction, you walk into your bank and they say you’ve not enrolled for BVN as such you can’t run the account and there’s a machine there, what you need to do is to enrol and continue to run your account, it shouldn’t be a problem. But if you have any reason why you don’t want an account you’re operating to be tied to your BVN, then that’s a totally different discussion. There shouldn’t be any anxiety at all.”

    Expatiating, he urged the media to help enlighten the public about the need to go the banks to enrol their BVN.

    Microfinance banks, he reiterated, “Now have BVN machines and those who have not acquired, should know that it’s available. They probably didn’t believe it’ll happen but it’s now a reality so they can convince their boards and ensure they have the machines. We made it easy as we got it at very discounted rates and the CBN further assisted us to even subsidise the costs of the BVN machines so it shouldn’t create room for any anxiety at all.”

    On the possibility of extension of the deadline, he was rather noncommittal. “It’s not us but the CBN that fix deadline and the last time we spoke to them they said they weren’t extending it so that’s why we charged our banks to be ready to enrol people. So it shouldn’t create any anxiety at all.”

  • Senator asks Appeal Court to quash house forfeiture order

    Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs Senator Peter Nwaoboshi has asked the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division to set aside an interim order forfeiting Guinea House, Lagos, to the Federal Government.

    The Federal High Court in Lagos made the order on April 24, following an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), through its counsel, George Chia-Yakua.

    Nwaoboshi, who represents Delta North, and two of his firms, Golden Touch Construction Project Limited and Bilderberg Enterprises Limited, are the defendants.

    The court ordered that Guinea House, a 12-storey building at 29, Marine Road, Apapa, bought in 2010 for N805 million, be forfeited pending the EFCC’s conclusion of an investigation of a petition against the trio.

    Last Wednesday, the defendants through their counsel, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), unsuccessfully applied to Justice Abdulaziz Anka at the same court to lift the interim order, which “perpetually put the property under investigation”.

    Justice Anka ruled that, notwithstanding a pending suit challenging EFCC’s alleged “unconstitutional” pasting of an “under investigation” notice on the building, the ex-parte order was necessary to preserve the property until the substantive matter was disposed of.

    “In the current action, the EFCC has put their intention to manifestation and I, therefore, see no abuse of the process,” Justice Anka held.

    But in their notice of appeal, Nwaoboshi and his firms raised four grounds, including that the judge erred in law when he dismissed their application.

    According to them, the court ought to have discharged the forfeiture order, because the EFCC did not place any cogent material before Justice Anka to indicate that any of the appellants would be prosecuted.

    No date has been fixed for hearing.

  • Court orders forfeiture of N13b Ikoyi cash

    Court orders forfeiture of N13b Ikoyi cash

     

    The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered the forfeiture of $43,449,947 (about N13billion), N23, 218,000 million and £27,800 (about N10.6milion) cash found in Flat 7B, Osborne Towers,  Ikoyi, Lagos.

    Justice Muslim Hassan ordered that the money be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government following the failure of anyone to claim its ownership.

    The judge, however, refused to grant the application of EFCC counsel I. A. Mohammed for N5million costs against a lawyer and rights activist, Olukoya Ogungbeje, for wasting the court’s time in relation to the cash.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) discovered the money on April 11, 2017 in cabinets and “Ghana-must-go” bags following a tip-off from a whistle-blower.

    On April 13, 2017 EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, sought an interim order temporarily forfeiting the funds to the Federal Government in line with Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act 2006.

    He said: “Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act empowers my lord to order the interim forfeiture of a property to the Federal Government where the property is found to be unclaimed, or where it is found to be proceeds of an unlawful activity.”

    Section 17 (1) of the Advance Fee Fraud Act says: “Where any property has come into the possession of any officer of the Commission as unclaimed property, or any unclaimed property is found by any officer of the Commission to be in the possession of any other person, body corporate or financial institution, or any property in the possession of any person, body corporate or financial institution is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of some unlawful activity under this Act, the Money Laundering Act of 2004, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act of 2004 or any other law enforceable under the EFCC Act of 2004, the High Court shall upon application made by the commission, its officers, or any other person authorised by it, and upon being reasonably satisfied that such property is an unclaimed property or proceeds of unlawful activity under the Acts stated in this subsection, make an order that the property or the proceeds from the sale of such property be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

    Justice Hassan directed the EFCC to advertise the order in a national newspaper so that anybody claiming its ownership could claim it within 14 days or it would be permanently forfeited to the government.

    Although nobody came forward on May 5, when the matter came up, Ogungbeje filed an application for a stay of proceedings pending when a probe panel headed by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo would submit its findings on the cash.

    This was opposed by the EFCC, which urged the court to dismiss it and proceed with the forfeiture proceedings.

    Justice Hassan upheld the agency’s argument and dismissed Ogungbeje’s application for want of merit.

    The application, the judge said, is totally strange to law, adding that Ogungbeje could not seek a stay of proceedings since he never appealed against the interim forfeiture order.

    The judge said Ogungbeje, not being a party to the suit, was a meddlesome interloper and a busybody.

    Ruling, the judge said: “I am in complete agreement with the submission of the learned counsel for the applicant (EFCC) that the property sought to be attached are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.

    “By any standard this huge sum of money is not expected to be kept without going through the designated financial institution. Also nobody has shown cause why the money should not be forfeited to the Federal Government.

    “Having regard to the following I have no option than to grant the application as prayed.

    “For the avoidance of any doubt, I hereby make the following orders: 1. A final order is made forfeiting the total sum of $43,449,947 found by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at Flat 7B of No. 16 Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, which sum is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

    The same order was made in respect of the £27,800 and N23,218,000.

    The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) through its suspended Director-General Ayodele Oke and the Rivers State Government through Governor Nyesom Wike claimed ownership of the funds.

    But the EFCC had, while arguing the application for final forfeiture order on May 5, named the wife of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director-General, Mrs. Folashade Oke, as the owner of the flat where the funds were recovered.

    The EFCC said it found out that Mrs. Oke made a cash payment of $1.658m, in tranches of $700,000, $650,000 and $353,700, for the purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3, 2015.

  • $43.4m: Before the forfeiture

    T WAS ONE recovery that exposed the true character of some of our politicians. It was not the first time the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would be making such a recovery, but it was the first time its recovery was threatening to bring the country down, as it were, on every one of us. The recovery was made in an highbrow apartment in Osborne, Ikoyi, Lagos. The cash haul caused mouths to water – $43.4million, N23, 218, 000 and 27,800 pounds. It was found in Apartment 7B House 16 Osborne Road, Ikoyi.

    How did the money get to the apartment? Who owns it? Why was it kept in that apartment? These were some of the questions the public asked as soon as news of the recovered cash broke. From reports, it was gathered that Folashade, wife of the suspended Director-General‘of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Ambassador Ayodele Oke, bought the flat where the money was found. She was said to have bought the house from Fine and Country Limited for $1.658million between August 25 and September 3, 2015, in the name of Chobe Ventures Limited.

    Mrs Oke and her son, Ayodele junior, according to papers filed in court by EFCC, are the directors of Chobe Ventures. What does Chobe Ventures do? The EFCC did not state in its affidavit. So, does the money belong to NIA? If it does not, whose money is it?

    This is the knot Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos is expected to untie when he rules on June 6 on EFCC’s application for permanent forfeiture of the cash to the Federal Government. Before the matter went to court, many people had laid claim to the money, with Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike threatening heaven and earth, if the cash was not returned to its ‘’rightful owner, Rivers State’’. Wike claimed that the money was part of the proceeds of the state’s gas turbines sold by his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi. He gave the government two weeks to return the money  or he will go to court. Since that outburst, the governor has been unusually silent because emerging facts do not support his claim. Does that mean he has dropped his state’s claim to the money? We will return to that shortly.

    The NIA is not a run-of-the-mill agency. It works to protect the country from external threat and its job is shrouded in secrecy in order not to jeopardise the lives of its agents, who work incognito. Those who should know are concerned with the dimension that the case is taking, especially reports that NIA is laying claim to the money. Former External Affairs Minister Prof Bolaji Akinyemi and erstwhile Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku are worried that the activities of NIA, which should not be in the open, are being exposed unduly.  Anyaoku, who rarely grants interviews, said in a statement issued from London that he aligned with Akinyemi’s position that everything concerning NIA in respect of the money should be handled secretly in line with global practice.

    Unfortunately, it is the NIA that should be blamed for whatever is happening to it today. I do not support exposing our security agents in whatever form but they too should not do anything to compromise their integrity. Their lives are always at stake because of the job they do. This is why we owe them the duty of protecting them by not blowing their cover. But, what if they blow their own cover, as we have seen in this case? If truly the money belongs to NIA, then it is its fault that the recovery of the cash has generated this huge row. All the NIA needed to do when EFCC stumbled on the money was to have called higher authorities, which would have directed the anti-graft agency to back off.

    But, it seems something was fishy, which made EFCC to blow the matter open. Having said that, what do we make of Wike’s claim to the money? Barely 24 hours after the money was found, Wike called a press conference, where he alleged that  Amaechi took the cash, which belongs to Rivers for the purpose of campaigning for President Muhammadu Buhari in the last election. He did not stop at that. He invited clergymen to the government house in Port Harcourt to pray to God to touch the heart of the Federal Government to release the money to its ‘’rightful owner’’. Who is this ‘’rightful owner’’? Wike and others laying claim to the money were given ample time by Justice Hassan to prove their claims.

    On April 13 while ordering the temporary forfeiture of the money to the government, the judge gave claimants up till May 5 to bring their proof. Neither Wike nor NIA nor any other person laying claim to the money did so. How can that be? Is Wike now saying the money no longer belongs to Rivers? The money is Rivers and it must be returned to the state with interest. With that kind of money, Wike will do more projects for the state and also extend the gesture to other states, if need be.

    There is a lesson to learn from all this by our politicians. We should not play politics with every issue. What was the need in Wike inveighing Amaechi and inviting clerics to pray and fast for money that does not belong to his state? Wike misfired and abused the privilege of his office in maligning his predecessor. The court gave him opportunity to prove ownership of the money, but he did not do so.

    By his silence, he has eaten his words and vindicated Amaechi over this matter. But must politicians descend to this level in order to settle scores? Anyway, the court is waiting for Wike to come for his state’s money.

  • Court orders forfeiture of Patience Jonathan’s $5.8m, N2.4b

    Court orders forfeiture of Patience Jonathan’s $5.8m, N2.4b

    THE Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered the temporary forfeiture of $5,842,316.66 belonging to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Patience.

    Justice Mojisola Olatoregun made the order based on an ex-parte application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    The commission said it found the money in an account numbered 2110001712 with Skye Bank Plc in Mrs. Jonathan’s name.

    The judge also ordered the forfeiture of N2,421,953,522.78 found in an Ecobank Nigeria Ltd account numbered 2022000760 in the name of La Wari Furniture and Baths Ltd.

    EFCC said the funds were “reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities”.

    Justice Olatoregun directed the EFCC to publish the interim order in a national newspaper.

    It is for the respondents or anyone interested in the funds to be forfeited to appear before the court within 14 days to “show cause” as to why a final order of forfeiture should not be made in favour of the Federal Government.

    EFCC’s counsel Rotimi Oyedepo said the application was based on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act 2006.

    In an affidavit in support of the ex parte originating summons, an EFCC operative, Musbahu Yahaya Abubakar, said he was a member of a Special Task Force Team assigned to investigate the case.

    He said the commission received an intelligence report that funds suspected to be proceeds of crime were “warehoused” in the accounts.

    “The intelligence was analysed and found worthy of investigation,” Abubakar said.

    He said Mrs. Jonathan opened the Skye Bank account on February 7, 2013.

    “Upon the opening of the account, several huge cash deposits in dollars were made to the account.

    “One Dudafa Waripamo Owei, who was the Senior Special Assistant to the former President was one of the frequent depositors in the account.

    “Another frequent cash depositor of funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities into the account is one Festus Iyoha, a steward at the State House, Abuja,” the deponent said.

    The EFCC investigator said Iyoha also made deposits with fictitious names.

    Abubakar said between February 8, 2013 and January 30, 2015, $6,791,599.64 suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities was deposited into the account in cash.

    He said Mrs. Jonathan had dissipated part of the funds, leaving a balance of $5,731,173.55.

    “If this fund is not forfeited in the interim, the operator of the account, Mrs. Dame Patience Jonathan, will fully dissipate it.

    “She made cash withdrawal of $100,000 on April 7, 2017 from the account after obtaining court order in suit No FHC/L/CS/1343/16 on the ground that she was not made a party to the suit,” the investigator said.

    On the N2.4 billion, the operative said the commission also traced the money to the Ecobank account following suspicions that it was a proceed of crime.

    He said the “purported” signatory to the account was Ada Ifegbu, with a telephone number belonging to Esther Oba.

    The EFCC operative said the N2.4 billion “was substantially the naira equivalent of the United States dollars given to one Chima Nwafor John of Ecobank Nigeria Ltd by one Esther Oba at the Aso Rock Villa”.

    He said it was John, who contracted bureau de change operators to convert the money to naira and deposit it to La Wari Furniture and Baths Ltd’s account.

    Abubakar said the dollars, which were subsequently converted to naira and deposited in the firm’s account were all received in cash by John.

    The operative added: “The various deposits by Chima Nwafor John through the bureau de change operators were placed on fixed deposit.

    “The sum of N2,033,196,721.31 reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities is currently on fixed deposit in La Wari Furniture’s account.

    “Apart from the fixed amount, the sum of N388,751,801.47 reasonably suspected to be proceed of unlawful activities is currently standing to the credit of La Wari Furniture and Baths Ltd’s account.

    “It is in the interest of justice to, in the interim, make an order of forfeiture to the Federal Government of Nigeria and allow any person who has interest in the properties sought to be forfeited to appear before this honourable court within 14 days to show cause why the properties reasonably suspected by the applicant to be proceeds of unlawful activities should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

    “It is in the interest of justice to grant this application.”

    Ruling, Justice Olatoregun said: “Application is granted as prayed.”

    This is coming a day after EFCC withdrew its application for a stay of execution of a judgment which freed the account.

    The EFCC frozen the account last year.

    Justice Olatoregun on April 6 freed the account after Mrs. Jonathan’s lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), had argued that her client was not a party to suit.

    Dissatisfied with the order, EFCC filed an application for stay of execution but withdrew it on Monday.

    Justice Olatoregun adjourned until May 15.

  • Court orders forfeiture of N449m found in Lagos shop

    Court orders forfeiture of N449m found in Lagos shop

    Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered the temporary forfeiture of N449,750,000 found in an abandoned Bureau de Change shop on Victoria Island, Lagos.

    He ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to advertise the order in a newspaper.

    The judge said anybody interested in the money should report in court to justify ownership.

    The interested party must appear before him within 14 days to show cause as to why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

    An EFCC investigator, Moses Awolusi, in a supporting affidavit to a motion ex-parte, said Shop LS64 at Legico Shopping Plaza had not been opened for two years.

    He said the money was found on April 7 in several ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags.

    The EFCC, he said, recovered it after investigating intelligence about Mohammed Tauheed.

    According to the investigator, Tauheed allegedly conspired with the owner of the abandoned shop to launder the money.

    Awolusi said Tauheed had earlier been brought to the EFCC office by the Chairman and Vice Chairman of Legico Shopping Plaza, Mr. Sulaiman Daba and Alhaji Ishaq Ayandiran.

    Tauheed, he said, told the anti-graft agency he received the money in cash from a serving government official, whose name was not disclosed for security reasons.

    The operative said Tauheed agreed to return the money to the Federal Government.

    The EFCC said the money is strongly suspected to be proceeds of criminal activities.

    After granting the order, Justice Aikawa adjourned until May 19.

     

  • EFCC seeks forfeiture of Diezani’s N9.08b

    EFCC seeks forfeiture of Diezani’s N9.08b

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday urged the Federal High Court in Lagos to order the forfeiture of N9.billion allegedly laundered for former Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Allison-Madueke.
    Mrs Alison-Madueke, who is in London, has denied any wrongdoing, alleging that she is being persecuted.
    Justice Muslim Hassan had on January 6 ordered the temporary forfeiture of the money.
    They include a N23,446,300,000 and $5milion (about N1.5billion) said to be stashed in banks.
    The court ordered the banks holding the money to supply proof that it was not stolen or risk losing it permanently to the Federal Government.
    Only an Executive Director of First Bank Plc, Dauda Lawal, responded.
    EFCC said the allegedly laundered money was a proceed of crime.
    Yesterday, the commission’s lawyer, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, prayed Justice Hassan to make an order forfeiting the money permanently to the Federal Government.
    Justify the freezing of the money, the lawyer said Section 17 (1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act makes a property that is reasonably suspected by EFCC to be proceeds of unlawful act forfeitable to the Federal Government.
    “Can it be said that from the facts and circumstances of this case, that the N9,080,000,000.00, which is the naira equivalent of $40million cannot be reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity?” Oyedepo asked.
    The EFCC lawyer said there was a conspiracy to launder the money, adding that there was “a meeting of the minds” by those it indicted.
    Oyedepo was arguing EFCC’s opposition to an application by Lawal, who was accused of aiding Mrs. Alison-Madueke in laundering the funds.
    Lawal is praying the court to discharge the interim forfeiture order.
    His lawyer, Mr Charles Adeogun, urged the court to issue an order directing a refund of the temporarily forfeited N9.08billion on the grounds that EFCC seized it through coercion.
    He argued that before such forfeiture orders could be made, it must be ascertained that the property in question is unclaimed, and that such property or funds form proceeds of an unlawful act.
    Adeogun argued that his client admitted having received $25 million on Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s behalf, but was coerced by the commission to further admit receiving $65 million.
    According to him, the $40 million was taken as an overdraft from his bank to offset the alleged extra sum.
    He is, therefore, praying the court to order the immediate refund of the sum to his client.
    But, Oyedepo argued that there was a meeting of the minds between Lawal and some officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to launder the funds.
    “My lord, paragraph 4 of our reply affidavit shows a meeting of the minds of one Gbenga Komolafe, former Group Managing Director, Crude Oil Marketing Division of NNPC, Prince Haruna Momoh, former Group Managing Director, Petroleum Product Marketing company, Umar Farouk Ahmed, and Group Managing Director, Nigerian Product Marketing Company, Stanley Lawson, Babajide Sonoiki and the second respondent, Executive Director of First Bank of Nigeria.
    “The evidence shows their agreement to retain and launder funds on behalf of the former Petroleum Minister Diezanni Alison-Madueke.
    “It’ll amount to contesting the obvious to argue that the second respondent did not have knowledge of the source of the money,” Oyedepo said.
    The lawyer denied that EFCC detained Lawal without a court order, adding that his statement was lawfully and voluntarily obtained.
    He said Lawal admitted that the $40million was in his possession.
    Oyedepo added: “I submit that the proper order your Lordship should make is the final forfeiture of the N9.08billion to the Federal Government being sum found in proceed of unlawful activity.
    “I urge my Lord to hold that the second respondent (Lawal) has not shown good cause why the said sum should not be forfeited. The funds were recovered from him. The funds we’re seeking to attach is in possession of the second respondent.
    “Having advertised to the whole world pursuant to the order of my lord and no one else came to claim the money except the second respondent, it’ll be appropriate to order the forfeiture of the N9.08billion.
    “For the other respondents, in view of their failure to react to the case, they are deemed to have admitted the facts contained in our application.
    “Since no one has shown cause in relation to N23,446,300,000 and the sum of $5milion, I, therefore, urge your lordship to order the forfeiture of the sums to the Federal Government finally.”
    Justice Hassan adjourned until February 16 for judgment.