The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the temporary
forfeiture of Flat 7B Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, where the sums of
$43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 were discovered stashed away in iron
cabinets and Ghana-must-go bags in April.
Justice Saliu Saidu ordered the forfeiture of the flat to the
Federal Government on Thursday following an ex parte application by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Upon making the interim forfeiture
order, the judge gave any interested party in the property 14 days to appear
before him to show the cause why it should not be permanently forfeited to the
Federal Government. He ordered the EFCC to publish the forfeiture order in a
national newspaper, to serve as a notice to any interested party. Justice Saidu
adjourned till November 30, 2017, for further hearing.
Joined as the only
defendant in the ex parte application by the EFCC was Chobe Ventures Limited,
said to be linked with Folashade Oke, the wife of dismissed Director-General of
the National Intelligence Agency, Ayodele Oke.
The EFCC had earlier named Folashade as the owner of the flat. The EFCC
said it found out that Folashade made cash payment of $1, 658,000 for the
purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3, 2015. She was said to
have purchased the property in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited,
to which she and her son, Master Ayodele Oke Jnr., were directors. The payment
for the purchase of the flat was said to have been made to one Fine and Country
Limited.
The EFCC stated
that Folashade made the cash payment in tranches of $700,000, $650,000 and
$353,700 to a Bureau de Change, Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, which later
converted the sums into N360,000,000 and subsequently paid it to Fine and
Country Limited for the purchase of the property. In a 10-paragraph affidavit
attached to its ex parte application, an operative of the EFCC, Musa Yusuf,
said the anti-graft agency believed that the $1,658,000 used to purchase the
property was Federal Government’s money which Ayodele allegedly fraudulently
converted to his own while in office as NIA DG. Yusuf said when EFCC operatives
stormed the flat to recover the $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 cash in
April, they found, among other documents, an envelope addressed to “Ambassador
and Mrs. Ayo Oke from Yemi and Omowale Dipeolu.”
He said
investigation by the anti-graft agency revealed that “in late 2014, Mrs.
Ayodele Folasade Oke contacted one Rawlings Ehumadu of Rawlings Ehumadu &
Co for a serviced flat for her purchase.
“That the said Rawlings Ehumadu complied with his client’s instructions,
locating Flat 7B Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, for Mrs. Ayodele Folasade Oke as
suitable serviced flat. “Rawlings Ehumadu of Rawlings Ehumadu & Co.
contacted Fine & Country International Realty by making offer and
counter-offer on behalf of Chobe Ventures Ltd. for the purchase of the property
sought to be forfeited.
“That Mrs. Ayodele
Folasade Oke showed interest in the property sought to be forfeited and further
contacted one Alhajji Shehu Usman Anka to transfer the total sum of N374,
460,000 to Fine & County Realty International. “That the said Alhaji Shehu Usman, who is a
Bureau De Change operator, received the sum of $1,658,000 in cash from Mrs.
Ayodele Folasade Oke, which sum was converted to naira and transferred to Fine
& County International Realty. “That Fine & County International Realty
acknowledged the receipt of the sum of N360,000,000 from Chobe Ventures Ltd.,
being payment for the purchase of a four-bedroomed apartment, known as Flat 7B
Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos.
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