Ex-NNPC GMD Loses Bid to Reverse Forfeiture Order on $9.8m

 

A Federal High Court in Kano has dismissed the application filed by a former Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu, seeking to quash an interim order of forfeiture secured by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Ruling on the application filed by the counsel to Yakubu, Ahmad Raji, Justice Zainab Abubakar said the court has jurisdiction to hear the case, contrary to the argument of Raji.

The judge, according to Premium Times, also ruled that the application seeking to set aside the case lacks basic legal framework and that the EFCC is competent according to Section 29 of its Act to seek for the order of interim forfeiture.

The EFCC had on February 13, 2017 secured the court’s order on the forfeiture of the over $9.8 million retrieved from Yakubu’s house in Kaduna.

Yakubu is already being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency for the money found in his house on February 2.

On Tuesday, a witness told a Federal High Court in Abuja, where the ex-oil chief is being prosecuted, how the money was found.