Appeal Court okays forfeiture of Andrew Yakubu’s $9.7m, £74,000 to FG
The Court of Appeal in Kaduna has affirmed the decision of the Federal High Court Kano that forfeited $9.7million and £74,000 cash found in a house in Kaduna belonging to former Group Managing Director of NNPC, Engineer Andrew Yakubu, to the Federal Government.
The Daily Times recalls that on February 3, 2017, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed a house allegedly belonging to the former NNPC boss and uncovered the said $9,772,800 and another £74,000 stashed in a fireproof safe.
The money, according to Yakubu, were gifts from well wishers.
The EFCC, however, suspected that the money were proceeds of crime while the development prompted the commission to secure an interim forfeiture from the Federal High Court on the money.
But Yakubu through his lawyer, Mr Ahmed Raji (SAN), approached the Federal High Court in Kano, asking the court to revoke the order.
The Federal High Court in Kano presided over by Justice Z.B Abubakar on May 10, 2017 dismissed the application of Yakubu and affirmed the order of interim forfeiture it granted on the 13th February, 2017.
Dissatisfied with decision of the Federal High Court, Yakubu approached the Court of Appeal, asking it to reverse the interim forfeiture order of the lower court.
The appeal was filed on the 22nd of May, 2017 while the Commission filed its response which was subsequently adopted on the 29th of January 2018 while the matter was adjourned to Friday (yesterday) for judgment.
Yakubu’s appeal was anchored on grounds of jurisdiction, misrepresentation of fact by EFCC that the money is suspected to be proceeds of illegal activities.
He further argued that Section 29 of the EFCC Establishment Act is null and void while at the same time submitted that, Section 28 of the EFCC Act offends the provision of Section 44 (2) (k).
In Section 43 of the EFCC Establishment Act, Raji argued that the Attorney General of the Federation did not make regulations and guidelines consequently, all forfeiture made shall be null and void.
But the respondents in their reply, contended that the verdict of the lower court validating its order was not perverse and that sections 28 and 29 of EFCC Act are valid and operational notwithstanding the alleged failure of the AGF to make regulations for their operations.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Obietonbara Daniel Kalio who headed the panel of the three justices, the appellate court resolved all the issues in favour of EFCC.
