IKoyi Gate: Court orders permanent forfeiture of $43,449,947; £27,800 and N23,218,000

Monies discovered by EFCC at Ikoyi Apartment

A Lagos Federal High Court has on Tuesday ordered the final forfeiture of the cash discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in an Ikoyi apartment on April 12, 2017 following the tip off of a whistle blower.

The judgement Justice delivered by Muslim Hassan was on the premise of the failure of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to come forward to lay claim to the ownership of $43,449,947; £27,800 and N23,218,000 (N13.3 billion).

Justice Hassan, in his ruling, upheld the submission by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedope, and dismissed the application of a private legal practitioner, Olukoya Ogungbeje, which had urged the court to suspend further action in the forfeiture proceedings.

Ogungbeje at the resumed hearing of the case on May 5 had argued that proceedings be suspended pending the outcome of the Osinbajo-led three-man panel constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the claim by the suspended NIA Director General, Ambassador Ayodele Oke, that the money belonged to the agency.

However, at the resumed hearing Tuesday, Justice Hassan dismissed the application saying it lacked merit.

Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, an EFCC spokesperson, said the judge described the application as totally strange, adding that Ogungbeje had no right to seek a stay of proceedings in the case, since he did not appeal against the interim forfeiture order.



The judge who said Ogungbeje’s application was strange to law, described him as a“meddlesome interloper and a busybody”, as he was not a party in the suit filed by the EFCC.

Thereafter, Justice Hassan gave an order permanently forfeiting the funds to the federal government.

Justice Hassan was quoted in the statement as saying: “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 activities and that by every standard this huge sum of money is not expected to be kept without going through a designated financial institution; more so, nobody has shown cause why the said sum should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Having regard to the foregoing, I have no other option but to grant this application as prayed.

“For the avoidance of any doubt, I hereby make the following orders: 1. A final order is made forfeiting the sums of $43,449,947 found by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission 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 judge made the same order in respect of the £27,800 and N23,218,000.

In light of the judgment the counsel to the EFCC Idris Mohammed, urged the court to award a cost of N5 million against Ogungbeje for wasting the time of the court with his application.

However, the judge declined the application.

A day after the discovery of the money, the EFCC had sought for and obtained an interim forfeiture order from the court, despite the admission by Oke that the funds belonged to his agency and had been kept in the apartment for covert projects in Lagos and the South-west.

In granting the interim forfeiture, Justice Hassan had given 14 days for anyone interested in the cash haul to show up before it to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.