An Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu on Tuesday ordered that the sum of N397.6 million suspected to be pension funds illegally kept by suspected pension thieves in two commercial banks should be forfeited, in the interim, to the Federal Government.
According to the details of the lodgments, the two banks hold the huge cash in both local and foreign currencies but the owners remained unknown despite repeated efforts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to identify them.
The currency composition of the cash is: N357,206,311.15, $91,955.38 (N33, 411, 987.32) and £15,050 (N7, 040 , 841.5).
Worried by the inability of the two banks to name the owners of the cash, the anti-graft agency approached the court to seek the forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government in line with its mandate.
Justice Ojukwu had on October 26, 2018 issued the order of interim forfeiture for the monies domiciled in the two commecial banks following an ex-parte summons by the EFCC dated October 3, 2018 and filed on October 5, 2018.
Specifically, the commission had, in the course of investigating a pension fraud case, traced to the monies to the accounts of a firm known as ‘Tahir Yusuf and Bitmas Enterprises’.
Preparatory to a final forfeiture of the fund, the judge directed that the EFCC to publish the notice of the interim forfeiture order in any national daily newspaper and on the EFCC’s website.
The judge held further that “any such persons or bodies, who may be affected by this order is at liberty within 14 days of the said publication to apply for a Motion on Notice to the Court on such justifiable grounds, to show cause why a final order of forfeiture should not be made.”
The matter has now been fixed for November 28, 2018 for report/hearing of order show cause.
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