Admin l Thursday, March 16, 2017
IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has ordered temporary forfeiture of N1.825bn found in the bank accounts of one Acquila Leasing Limited.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which obtained the order claimed that the N1.825 was part of a total of N2.387bn allegedly diverted from the coffers of the Nigerian Navy by a former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Dele Ezeoba (retd.), who headed the navy between 2012 and 2014.
EFCC prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, had filed the application based on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act No. 14, 2006 and Section 44(2)(k) of the 1999 Constitution, before Justice Musliu Hassan for temporary forfeiture order.
The judge granted the order and gave 14 days for Chwuka Onwuchekwa and Acquila Leasing Limited and any other party interested in the money to appear before him to give reasons why the fund should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The matter has been adjourned to March 29, 2017 for all the interested parties to appear before him.
An operative of the EFCC, Adamu Usman had in an affidavit said Ezeoba was probed following an intelligence report, which, he said, the anti-grant agency analyzed and found to be worthy of investigation.
He said the information obtained from Ezeoba on June 21, 2016 by the EFCC revealed that the N1.825bn was proceeds of crime “fraudulently diverted from the Nigerian Navy under the leadership of Ezeoba.”
“That Mr. Dele Joseph Ezeoba used the name of the first respondent (Acquila) to open the fraudulent account in disguise while he was the one who truly laundered the money. That in a desperate bid to further disguise and conceal the illicit source of the said funds, Mr. Dele Joseph Ezeoba entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to buy shares of Acquila Leasing Limited from the first respondent (Onwuchekwa), who is the Managing Director of the second respondent.
“That the said shares of Acquila Leasing Limited was worth N2.378,000,000. That out of the N2.378bn, the sum of N1.825bn only has been recovered in drafts in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Usman averred.
