The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Central Bank of Nigeria to deposit the sum of $9.7m and £74,000 seized from a former Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, with the court pending an appeal filed by the Federal Government.
Yakubu had sued theEFCC, CBN, and the Guaranty Trust Bank, seeking to recover the $9,773,200.00 and £74,000.00 seized from him after he was acquitted of fraud charges.
Operatives of the EFCC had raided the property of the former NNPC chief in Kaduna and recovered $9.8m and £74,000 stashed in a fire-proof safe on February 3, 2017,
He was alleged to have omitted the funds from the EFCC asset declaration form given to him to fill in 2015.
Yakubu was arraigned on a six counts bordering on money laundering and false declaration of assets but the court discharged and acquitted him.
However, in an originating summons, marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/231/2023, Yakubu asked the court to determine whether the EFCC ought to still have in its custody his seized monies after the judgment.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment on Monday, held that he found that the EFCC and CBN had not been forthright concerning the whereabouts of the sums on which the suit was centred.
The judge said, “Therefore, the proper order to make in this case is that which can assure all parties that the sums are in the custody that can make them retrievable by any of the parties entitled thereto eventually, pending the determination of the appeal lodged by the Federal Government against the decision of a sister court in suit number: FHC/ABJ/CR/43/2017.”
