The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) on Monday announced the forfeiture of 753 duplexes in Abuja by former top brass of the government but was silent on the identity of the owner(s) of the humongous asset.
However, court documents filed by the EFCC indicated that the massive property has been linked to the embattled immediate-past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and his acolytes.
The Daily Crucible reported that operatives of the Department of State Services(DSS) arrested Emefiele in Lagos in 2023 hours after he was suspended from office by President Bola Tinubu.
And in October same year, the EFCC arrested Emefiele in less than an hour he regained his freedom from the DSS.
The anti-graft agency on Monday, December 2, 2024 described the forfeited property as the biggest single asset recovery it had made in its annals of fighting corruption since the establishment the agency in 2003.
The recovery followed a ruling delivered on December 2, 2024 by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the FCT High Court in Apo.
The court documents and the associated narration by the EFCC linked Emefiele to the massive property sitting on 150,500 square metre and identified as Plot 109, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.
Emefiele is currently being prosecuted by the EFCC over three separate cases in equally three different courts.
While Emefiele is before Justice Hamza Mu’azu for alleged procurement fraud, forgery of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature, and other charges, he is standing trial before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos where he is being charged with fraud involving $4.5bn and N2.8bn.
Besides, the ex – CBN Governor is before Justice Maryann Anenih of the FCT High Court in Abuja for allegedly approving the printing of N684.5m new notes at a whopping cost of N18.96bn.
According to the Punch, the EFCC document indicates that Emefiele allegedly carried out “monumental fraud” as the CBN governor with his cronies to acquire several properties including the estate.
“The commission whilst investigating the alleged monumental fraud carried out by the immediate past Governor of the CBN and his cronies traced and discovered several properties reasonably suspected to have been acquired and or developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.
“The property highlighted in Schedule A to this application is one of the said properties recovered, having been reasonably suspected to have been acquired/ developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.”
The EFCC also alleged that “in the cause of this investigation, it was revealed that the erstwhile CBN governor negotiated kickbacks in return for allocation of foreign exchange to some companies who were in desperate need of foreign exchange for their lawful and legitimate businesses.
“Our investigation equally revealed that erstwhile CBN Governor received kickbacks from some contractors who were awarded contracts by the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
The anti-graft agency also alleged that Emefiele connived with several cronies, including one Ifeanyi Omeke, who “ran several errands for him, which included purchase and perfection of title documents for several properties located in highbrow areas of Lagos and Abuja.”
It said the documents for the Abuja property were recovered during a search of Omeke’s office and that investigators located the property on September 17, 2024 “with the assistance of a surveyor from the Abuja Geographical Information Systems, using search results and coordinate.”
The EFCC said its investigation “revealed that the said property has been abandoned and deserted with only a guard manning the said property since June 2023 upon the arrest of the erstwhile CBN Governor. “
According to the EFCC, the massive property, allegedly acquired by Emefiele, through cronies, was originally meant for a mass housing development.
The EFCC said its investigation revealed that Emefiele used three companies to pay a total of N2.2bn to buy the property.
It said the seller “received the aggregate sum of N2,200,000,000.00,” adding that “the said three companies used for the payment of the property are enmeshed in criminal maneuvering of layering proceeds of illegal activities of Mr. Godwin Emiefele.”
According to the EFCC, one of the companies was used to pay N900m, the second paid N700m, while the third paid N600m, totalling N2.2bn.
It said the directors of the companies were arrested “and their statements voluntarily obtained in the course of investigation.”
“The funds used in the acquisition of the property highlighted in Schedule A to this application are not legitimate earnings of Godwin Emefiele but funds acquired through illegal and unlawful activities.
“That I know as a fact and verily believe that the source/origin of the funds used in the acquisition and/or development of the properties sought to be forfeited are proceeds of unlawful activities to wit: corrupt enrichment, receiving of gratification or kickbacks and abuse of office,” an EFCC investigator stated in the affidavit filed in court.
The EFCC noted that the court had on November 1, 2024 made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the property “after evaluating facts placed before it.”
It, therefore, urged the judge to order the permanent forfeiture of the property to the Federal Government as no one had come forward to challenge the facts placed before the court, in spite of adverting the interim forfeiture order in The PUNCH edition of November 6, 2024.
According to the EFCC, the court acceded to its request and has now permanently forfeited the property to the Federal Government.
However, following a flurry of reactions by Nigerians over non -disclosure of the owner(s) of the property, EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, justified the agency’s decision not to give the identity of the owner to the public.
“The allegation of a cover-up of the identity of the promoters of the estate stands logic on the head in the sense that the proceedings for the forfeiture of the Estate were in line with Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, which is a civil proceeding that allows for action-in-rem rather than action-in-personam.
“The latter allows legal actions against a property and not an individual, especially in a situation of an unclaimed property. This Act allows you to take up a forfeiture proceeding against a chattel who is not a juristic person. This is exactly what the commission did in respect of the Estate. Individual in situations of unclaimed assets,” Oyewale said.
Additional report source: Punch
