A FEDERAL Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Apo, Abuja, has dismissed an application filed by former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele to reclaim a forfeited property comprising 753 duplexes and apartments in the nation’s capital.
The estate, containing 753 duplexes, is on 150,462.84 square meter land located in the Lokogoma District of Abuja.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had obtained a court injunction to permanently forfeit the property to the Federal Government.
The EFCC on Monday, December 2, announced the recovery of what it described as the “largest ever” seized assets but withheld the name of the person linked to the property.
Emefiele, through his lawyer, A.M. Kotoye, a senior advocate, later filed a motion as an interested party.
The former CBN chief applied for an extension of time to enable him to request that the court vacate the forfeiture order.
Emefiele claimed he was not aware of the forfeiture process and accused the EFCC of publishing the notice in a hidden part of a newspaper, preventing him from responding on time.
He further alleged that his ongoing trials in multiple courts made it hard for him to know about the publication and accused the EFCC of intentionally hiding the forfeiture proceedings from him.
The court headed by Jude Onwuegbuzie on Monday, April 28, ruled that Emefiele had sufficient opportunity to contest the forfeiture but didn’t act within the legally-permissible timeframe.
Onwuegbuzie rejected Emefiele’s claim that the publication was obscure and held that he wasn’t entitled to relief. He consequently dismissed his motion and ruled in favour of the EFCC.
In November 2023, Emefiele was sent to Kuje Correctional Centre over an alleged N1.6 billion procurement fraud after he was arraigned on a six-count charge before an FCT High Court, on Friday, November 17.
The ICIR reported on March 7, 2023, that a forensic analyst confirmed before an FCT High Court that the documents used by Emefiele to request the payment of $6.2 million to foreign election observers were forged.
The analyst, Bamaiyi Meriga, disclosed that he appeared as a witness for the EFCC at Emefiele’s trial.
Meriga, who appeared before Hamza Adamu, a judge, told the court that following forensic analysis of the documents, he discovered clear evidence of forgery of the signature and seal of execution, different from the original version.
In another case involving the former CBN governor in April 2024, a Lagos State High Court granted N50 million bail to him for abuse of office and other infractions.
The judge, Rahmon Oshodi, ruled on the bail application and admitted Emefiele on bail with two sureties in like sum.
The EFCC alleged that the former CBN governor abused his office between 2022 and 2023 in Lagos.
The EFCC also claimed that Emefiele made an arbitrary decision in Lagos between 2020 and 2021 by allocating foreign exchange of $291,945,785.59 without calling for bids, which the prosecutor said was an abuse of his office as the CBN governor.
He was also said to have arbitrarily taken another decision in Lagos in 2021 by allocating foreign exchange worth $1,769,254,793.16, which the EFCC said made him violate and abuse his position as the CBN governor.
Emefiele’s co-defendant, Omoile, was accused of accepting gifts of $110,000 for Emefiele from one Raja Punjab through another, Monday Osazuwa, on November 17, 2020, in Lagos while serving as an agent in exchange for the CBN.
The allegation stated that the offences violated Section 73 of the Lagos State Criminal Law 2011.
The former CBN governor is still facing various cases bothering on fraud in different courts.
A reporter with the ICIR
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