In connection with claims of fraud at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the Federal High Court in Abuja issued an order on Tuesday for the ultimate confiscation of three properties and N3.4 billion in cash.
In a decision on a notice for final forfeiture of the assets filed by Martha Babatunde, the attorney for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Justice Joyce Abdulmalik approved the request.
The assets comprise a two-bedroom apartment at Block 2, Apartment Al, Block EFG, Osbourne Foreshore Il, Ikoyi, Lagos, and an unfinished six-bedroom semi-detached duplex with boys’ quarters at Plot 3168, Asokoro District, Abuja.
Salihu Nuhu is the owner of the restaurant building located in Plot 102, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.
N3, 440, 000, 000.00 is the amount of money in the EFCC Recovery Account.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the money and the lost properties were allegedly the profits of illegal activity from three significant contracts that the NNPCL awarded to three contractors.
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 allegedly had considerable influence and control over while he was 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 order to file an affidavit of non-contestation at the last postponed date.
Abba claims that Mr. Saliu Jamari himself filed and deposed to the document.
The motion for the final forfeiture of the assets and funds was subsequently made by Babatunde.
She stated that the EFCC requested a final forfeiture order for the assets specified in the schedule in the motion dated March 17 and submitted on the same day.
She stated that the motion was accompanied by an 18-paragraph affidavit, 11 exhibits, and a written address.
She asked, “We filed a written address as our oral submission in urging this honorable 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 parties to explain why the final decision should not be made.
According to her, the instruction was followed and appeared in Punch Newspaper on March 3.
According to Babatunde, there was no reason why the properties and money shouldn’t be given to the Federal Government permanently.
The attorney, who attended as an interested party on March 31, stated that Jamari had no objections to the assets’ final forfeiture to the Federal Government, according to Justice Abdulmalik’s ruling.
She declared, “Therefore, 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 monies. The anti-graft agency provided six reasons why its request should be approved.
Iheanacho argued that it was a non-conviction-based asset forfeiture action and that the court had the statutory authority to provide the relief 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 NNPCL employees and contractors had been received, with Salihu Nuhu Jamari’s name appearing prominently.
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