Court orders final forfeiture of ₦3.4bn properties linked to alleged NNPC fraud

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday made an order of final forfeiture of three properties and N3.4 billion in cash linked to allegations of fraud perpetrated at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, in a ruling on a motion on notice for final forfeiture of the assets moved by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’s lawyer, Martha Babatunde, granted the application.

The properties include an incomplete six-bedroom semi-detached duplex with boys’ quarters at Plot 3168, Asokoro District, Abuja and a two-bedroom flat at Block 2, Apartment Al, Block EFG, Osborne Foreshore Il, Ikoyi, Lagos.

It also includes a restaurant building at Plot 102, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja, which are all in the name of Salihu Nuhu.

The money, which is in EFCC Recovery Account, is calculated as N3, 440, 000, 000.00.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the forfeited properties and the funds were said to be proceeds of unlawful activities derived from three major projects awarded by the NNPCL to three contractors.

The projects included the Maiduguri Emergency Power Project (MEPP), the Abuja Independent Power Project (Abuja IPP), and the Benin Gas Plant Project, in which Mr. Salihu Nuhu Jamari allegedly maintained significant influence and control while serving as Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Gas and Power Investment Company Limited (NGPIC).

When the case was called on Tuesday, Maryam Abba, who appeared for the interested party (Mr Jamari), informed the court that, at the last adjourned date, the court had instructed that an affidavit of non-contestation be filed, and that Jamari had complied.

According to Abba, the affidavit was filed and deposed to by Mr Saliu Jamari himself.

Babatunde then moved for the final forfeiture of the properties and the money.

She said the EFCC, in the motion dated March 17 and filed on the same date, sought a final forfeiture order of the assets listed in the schedule.

She said an 18-paragraph affidavit with 11 exhibits and a written address were attached to the motion.

“We filed a written address as our oral submission in urging this honorable court to grant our application, the motion, having been unopposed,” she prayed.

The lawyer said that pursuant to an interim order granted on Feb. 25, the court directed the commission to publish this by inviting any interested party to show cause why the final order should not be made.

She said the order had been complied with and published in Punch Newspaper on March 3.

Babatunde said no cause had been shown why the properties and the funds should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

Ruling, Justice Abdulmalik observed that the kawyer, who appeared as an interested party on March 31, stated that Jamari had no objection to the final forfeiture of the assets to the Federal Government.

“Consequently, I grant the order for final forfeiture of the properties and the funds attached to the motion to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” she ruled.

In the motion for final forfeiture of the properties and the funds filed by a team of EFCC’s lawyers led by Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, the anti-graft agency gave six grounds why its application should be granted.

Iheanacho, who submitted that the court has the statutory powers under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offenses Act, 2006, to grant the reliefs, said it was a non-conviction-based asset forfeiture proceeding.

In the affidavit deposed to by an investigator with the commission, Abdullahi Aminu, he said a petition was received on an alleged case of conspiracy, kickbacks, bribery and money laundering, involving some of the staff and contractors of NNPCL, wherein the name of one Salihu Nuhu Jamari featured prominently.

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