A Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, has appealed the court order that forfeited to the Federal Government the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 recovered from Flat 7B, No. 16, Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The judge made the order after dismissing an application by Ogungbeje asking that the judge should suspend the forfeiture proceedings pending when a three-man panel constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari in relation to the funds would submit its report.
The judge, who noted that Ogungbeje was not a party in the suit filed by the EFCC for the forfeiture of the money, described the lawyer as a “meddlesome interloper and a busybody”.
But displeased with the court’s ruling, Ogungbeje has approached the Court of Appeal seeking to reverse the permanent forfeiture order.
In his four-ground notice of appeal, the lawyer contended that the permanent forfeiture order made by Justice Hassan was not consistent with Section 44(k) of the 1999 Constitution, which, according to him, stipulated that “there must be investigation, prosecution and conviction before any final forfeiture order could be made by any court in Nigeria.”
“The respondent (EFCC) failed, in its investigation, to furnish the trial court with the sources of the money, owner of the money and how the money got into the residential apartment.
“The Nigerian criminal jurisprudence, as backed by sections 6(6)(b),35 and 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria do not envisage final forfeiture order in the absence of investigation, prosecution and conviction.
“The Federal Government has set up a panel headed by the Vice-President to investigate and unravel the mystery behind the discovery of large sum of money at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi.
“That full-scale investigation is still ongoing by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“That the investigative panel headed by the Vice-President has not released its report or made it public.
‘That the final forfeiture order made by the learned trial judge is hasty and prejudicial to ongoing investigation by the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Ogungbeje contended.
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