Ex-Naval chief forfeits N1.8b to FG

Justice Muslim Sule Hassan of a Federal High Court Lagos yesterday ordered the final forfeiture of N1.83 billion allegedly belonging to a former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Dele Ezeoba.

The judge made the order for permanent forfeiture of the sum, following an application by the EFCC prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, in pursuant to section 17 of the Advanced Fee Fraud Act 2006.

In the application, EFCC had said that the money was traced to the account of Aquila Leasing Ltd, adding that Ezeoba had agreed in his statement to the EFCC to forfeit the money.

The EFCC prosecutor had also told the court that the money was proceed of crime fraudulently diverted from the Nigerian Navy, that Ezeoba used the name Chukwuka Onwuchekwa to open a fraudulent account while he was the one who truly laundered the money.

The commission said that in a ‘desperate bid’ to further disguise and conceal the illicit source of the funds, Ezeoba entered into a memorandum of understanding to buy Aquila’s shares from Onwuchekwa, who is its managing director.

It said that the shares were worth N2.4 billion out of which about N1.83billion had been recovered.

Justice Hassan had on March 15, issued an interim order for the forfeiture of the said sum and ordered the anti-graft commission to make a publication of same in a national newspaper for the knowledge of interested parties.

In his judgment yesterday, Justice Hassan ordered a final forfeiture of the total sum of N1.825 billion to the Federal Government.