Court Orders Forfeiture Of N1.82b Allegedly Belonging To Former Chief of Naval Staff
Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the temporary forfeiture of the sum of N1.82 billion allegedly belonging to a former Chief of Naval Staff, Air Marshal, Dele Joseph Ezeoba, to the Federal Government.
Justice Hassan gave the order after listening to an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking the temporary forfeiture of the said sum to the government for being proceeds of unlawful activity.
The anti-graft agency had in a fiveparagraph affidavit in support of the application deposed to by an EFCC operative, Adamu Usman, the anti-graft agency claimed that the money which was fraudulently diverted from the Nigerian Navy under the leadership of Dele Joseph Ezeoba, has been traced to the account of a company known as Aquila Leasing Limited.
The EFCC also maintained that the former Chief of Naval Staff in a bid to conceal the proceeds of crime fraudulently opened an account in the name of Corporate Remedies Ltd with number; 1013490255 in Zenith Bank Plc using the name of one, Chwuka Onwuchekwa, as the owner of the account, when in actual fact he was the one that laundered the money.
The commission further averred that in a desperate bid to further disguise and conceal the illicit source of the said fund, the former Naval Chief entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to buy shares of Aquila Leasing Limited which value was put at N2.38 billion from its Managing Director, Chwuka Onwuchekwa.
The EFCC’s application was brought pursuant to Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud related offences Act No 4, 2006 and Section 44(2)k of the Constitution.