Court orders forfeiture of N7.6bn linked to Diezani

A federal high court sitting in Lagos has ordered the interim 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 ruling, had on Monday ordered the permanent forfeiture of a $37.5m sky-scrapper in Banana Island, Lagos, belonging to Diezani.

The commission told Obiozor via an ex parte application that the N7.6bn was part of the $153,310,000 which Diezani allegedly siphoned from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2014.

The EFCC also alleged that Diezani stashed the money in three banks, and the federal government had since February last year, through an order granted by another judge, Muslim Hassan, recovered part of the money.

The anti-graft agency on Tuesday wrote a piece where it gave a detail of all the funds and assets recovered from Diezani, adding that the federal government had recovered N23.4bn, $5m and another N9.08bn out of the $153.3m.

It urged the court to order Sterling Bank to release to the federal government the said sum still in its custody.

Obiozor granted the order and directed the commission to cause it to be published.

He then adjourned till August 28, 2017, for the bank and any other interested party to appear before him to show why the funds should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.