Court orders forfeiture of N449m found in BDC shop

Ebun Francis || The federal High Court in Lagos presided over by Justice Rilawan Aikawa on Friday ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N494, 597,000m abandoned at a shopping plaza in Victoria Island, Lagos, South West, Nigeria and seized by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC earlier in the year.

The forfeiture order was made by the presiding Judge following a motion on notice before him by the EFCC.

The Judge who had granted temporary forfeiture of the money on the 19th of April to enable one Mohammed Tauheed who was joined as a respondent to the suit and others interested to show cause why the money should not be forfeited, eventually ruled for final forfeiture to the federal government when they failed to show up on Friday.

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Idris Mohammed, the counsel to EFCC had earlier informed the Judge the temporary forfeiture order of April 19th was published in National Newspapers and the respondent himself personally served.

He, therefore, urged the presiding Judge to order final forfeiture since nobody has come forward to claim the money.

Justice Aikawa agreed with counsel for EFCC and ruled thus, “This court ordered, among others, the respondent (Tauheed) and any other interested party to show cause, within 14 days, why the interim forfeiture of N449,597,000 should not be made final. As far as my record shows, neither the respondent nor any other interested party has filed any affidavit or any other process to show cause why the interim order should not be made final.

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“In the instant case, the respondent has, additionally, not filed any process in response to the motion on notice. In the circumstances, I have no option but to grant the application as prayed.

“Accordingly, I hereby ordered that the sum of N449,597,000 found in possession of the respondent, which sum is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of an unlawful activity, be finally forfeited to the Federal Government.”