On Tuesday, the Federal High Court in Abuja issued an order for the final seizure of three properties and N3.4 billion in cash related to claims of fraud at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) attorney, Martha Babatunde, filed a motion on notice for ultimate seizure of the assets, which was approved by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik.
The assets comprise a two-bedroom apartment in Block 2, Apartment Al, Block EFG, Osbourne Foreshore Il, Ikoyi, Lagos, and an incomplete six-bedroom semi-detached duplex with boys’ quarters in Plot 3168, Asokoro District, Abuja.
Additionally, it comprises a restaurant structure in the name of Salihu Nuhu at Plot 102, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.
The EFCC Recovery Account contains N3, 440, 000, 000.00 in funds.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), three significant projects that the NNPCL granted to three contractors were allegedly the source of the seized assets and the money.
The projects included the Benin Gas Plant Project, the Maiduguri Emergency Power Project (MEPP), and the Abuja Independent Power Project (Abuja IPP), all of which Mr. Salihu Nuhu Jamari was purportedly in charge of while he was the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Gas and Power Investment Company Limited (NGPIC).
When the matter was summoned on Tuesday, Maryam Abba, who represented Mr. Jamari, the interested party, told the court that Jamari had complied with the court’s directive to file an affidavit of non-contestation at the last postponed date.
Abba claims that Mr. Saliu Jamari filed the affidavit and gave the deposition.
After that, Babatunde made the motion to finally relinquish the money and the assets.
According to her, the EFCC requested a final forfeiture order of the assets specified in the schedule in the motion dated March 17 and filed on the same day.
She stated that the move included a written address, an 18-paragraph affidavit, and 11 exhibits.
She asked, “We filed a written address as our oral submission in urging this honourable court to grant our application, the motion, having been unopposed.”
According to the attorney, the court ordered the commission to publish this in accordance with an interim order given on February 25 and invited any interested party to provide justification for why the final decision should not be made.
She stated that the order had been followed and that Punch Newspaper had published it on March 3.
According to Babatunde, there was no justification for not permanently forfeiting the assets and money to the federal government.
In his ruling, Justice Abdulmalik noted that Jamari had no objections to the assets’ final forfeiture to the Federal Government, according to the attorney who testified as an interested party on March 31.
As a result, she said, “I grant the order for final forfeiture of the properties and the funds attached to the motion to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
A group of EFCC attorneys led by Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, submitted a move for the final seizure of the properties and the money, and the anti-graft organization provided six reasons why its request should be approved.
It was a non-conviction-based asset forfeiture process, according to Iheanacho, who argued that the court had the statutory authority to give the remedy under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
Abdullahi Aminu, an investigator for the commission, stated in his affidavit that a petition alleging conspiracy, kickbacks, bribery, and money laundering involving some of NNPCL’s employees and contractors was received, with Salihu Nuhu Jamari’s name appearing prominently.
