A federal high court sitting in Lagos has ordered the
permanent forfeiture of N7,646,700,000 said to have
been illegally kept in Sterling Bank.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) had linked the money to Diezani Alison-
Madueke, former minister of petroleum resources.
Chuka Obiozor, a judge, who gave the judgment on
Monday, had ordered the permanent forfeiture of a
$37.5m sky-scrapper in Banana Island, Lagos,
allegedly owned by Diezani.
The commission had told Obiozor through an ex parte
application that the N7.6bn was part of the
$153,310,000 which Alison-Madueke allegedly
siphoned from the coffers of the Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2014.
The EFCC also alleged that the former minister stashed
the money away in three banks and that the federal
government had since February last year, through an
order granted by another judge, Muslim Hassan,
recovered part of the money.
It urged the court to order Sterling Bank to release to
the federal government the said sum still in its
custody.
Obiozor had granted an interim order for the forfeiture
of the funds, but on Monday he gave a permanent
order for the seizure of the funds.
TheCable
0 Comments