The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured an order for the final forfeiture of a warehouse allegedly traced to a former top official of the government facing alleged money laundering charges.
Highly placed sources, who spoke in confidence with New Telegraph, said the order was granted on Thursday by Justice Deinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.
According to our sources, the property, which sits on a landed property measuring 1.925 hectares, is situated along the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway, Magboro.
It was further learnt the warehouse contains 54 general-purpose steel containers filled with sewing machines of various shapes.
This development comes a few weeks after the anti-graft agency seized a property with 753 duplexes and other apartments located in the Cadastral Zone area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
This newspaper gathered that the judge had, on November 28, ordered the interim forfeiture of the assets upon consideration of the Commission’s application for their forfeiture.
One of the sources said: “Following the directive of the court to the EFCC, which is the lead anti-graft agency in the country, to publish the order in two national dailies for any interested person (s) to show cause why a final forfeiture order should not be made, the Commission later approached the court for the final forfeiture of the assets.
“Interestingly, the court also made another order for the forfeiture of the land holding the warehouse to the government”.
On the proceedings leading to the final forfeiture on Thursday, it was gathered that Counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN) told the court that the applicant had complied with the court’s directives to publish the assets in two national newspapers.
Placing reliance on Section 44(2) (B) of the constitution, as well as Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, the learned silk prayed the court to grant the final forfeiture of the assets.
“Justice Dipeolu granted the order, making the forfeiture another milestone in the asset recovery drive of the EFCC”, another dependable source disclosed.