J‎udge Orders Permanent Forfeiture Of Diezani’s $153m to FG

Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the permanent forfeiture of a sum of $153,310,000, which was said to have been diverted from the coffers of the Nigerian National‎ Petroleum Corporation by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The judge ordered that the money should be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had traced the money to three commercial banks in the country where it was kept in the sums of N23,446, 300,000, N9,080,000,000 and $5m.

The anti-graft agency had on January 6, 2016, approached Justice Hassan with an ex parte application, wherein it stated that the money was proceeds of criminal activity and urged the judge to make an order to forfeit it to the Federal Government temporary.

The judge had granted the interim forfeiture order and gave 14 days for anyone interested in the money to appear before him to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

When the case was heard on January 24, 2017, no one came to court to claim ownership of the N23,446, 300,000 and the $5m.

 

Source: Punch