Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of a Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of N827.6 million recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from some contractors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The anti-graft agency had, on June 8, secured the interim forfeiture of the money said to be proceeds of unlawful activities to the Federal Government. Justice Aneke later granted the final forfeiture of the fund after entertaining arguments from EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo. In his arguments, the lawyer told the court that the fund was laundered by the contractors through two firms: Flank Power Resources Limited and GMFD Ventures Limited.
He added that a businessman, Matthew Edevbie, owned Flank Resources Limited.
According to him, a breakdown of the recovery showed that N616.6 million was recovered from Flank Power Resources Limited, while N211 million was recovered from GMFD Ventures Limited. He added that between 2018 and 2019, Flank Power Resources Limited received N616.7 million from the NDDC while GMFD also received N211 million.
The amount recovered from Flank Power Resources Limited was said to have been facilitated through 62 bank drafts in favour of the EFCC Recovered Funds Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The money recovered from GMFD also came through 22 bank drafts in favour of the same account.
