On Friday, the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the final forfeiture of $2.045m (N3.46bn) linked to the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
The court also ordered the seizure of seven landed properties and two share certificates of Queensdorf Global Fund Limited Trust said to have been unlawfully acquired by the former CBN governor.
Justice Deinde Dipeolu, in his judgement, ordered the forfeiture as neither Emefiele nor any other interested appeared before the court to claim the properties.
The court also forfeited the seven choice landed properties on the ground that the former CBN Governor could not prove he acquired the properties from his earnings from Zenith Bank and the CBN.
During trial, Emefiele denied any connection with the companies in whose names the properties were purchased and the companies had also failed to appear before the court to claim the properties.
The companies listed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are Amrash Ventures Limited, Modern Hotels Limited, Finebury Properties Limited, Fidelity Express Services Limited, H & Y Business Global Limited and SDEM Erectors Nigeria Limited.
Justice Dipeolu held, “it can be deduced that there must be something dark about the acquisition of the properties which Emefiele and the companies do not want to come to light.”
The judge further held “that the interested party has failed to demonstrate any lawful interest in the properties and that they were acquired from his legitimate earnings”.
“I therefore order the final forfeiture to the Federal Government of Nigeria of all those properties…which are reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities.”
The properties seized are two fully detached duplexes of identical structures, lying being and situated at No. 17b Hakeem Odumosu Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos; an undeveloped land, measuring 1919.592sqm with Survey Plan No. DS/LS/340 at Oyinkan Abayomi Drive (Formerly Queens Drive), Ikoyi, Lagos; a bungalow at No. 65a Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, (Formerly Queens Drive), Ikoyi, Lagos and a four-bedroom duplex at 12a Probyn Road, Ikoyi.
Others are an industrial complex under construction on 22 plots of land in Agbor, Delta State; 8 units of an undetached apartment on a plot measuring 2457.60sqm at No. 8a Adekunle Lawal Road, Ikoyi, and a full duplex together with all its appurtenances on a plot of land measuring 2217.87sqm at 2a Bank Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The court had, on August 25, 2024, authorised the EFCC to temporarily take custody of the cash sum of $2.045million, the choice landed properties and shares linked to Emefiele.
The judge granted the order after listening to an ex-parte motion filed by the counsel to the anti-graft agency Rotimi Oyedepo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
While moving the forfeiture application, Oyedepo had submitted that Emefiele’s lawful earnings and savings before the assumption of office as CBN Governor, as he declared, were not used to acquire the properties sought to be forfeited.
However, counsel to Emefiele, Olalekan Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, had urged the court not to grant the final forfeiture of the properties, arguing that his client had shown in a balance of probability that the court ought not to grant final forfeiture of the properties.