A Federal High Court Sitting in Lagos has struck out a suit filed by billionaire businessman, Jide Omokore, seeking to recover some of his properties which have been temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government. Justice Mojisola Olatoregun struck out the suit because Mr Omokore‘s lawyer told the court that his client was seeking to discontinue the case.
No reason was given for the discontinuance.
Mr Omokore, who is believed to be an ally of Mrs Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, had filed the suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to secure the release of his properties after the court ordered its temporary forfeiture to the government.
The EFCC was not represented in court and since there was no objections to the discontinuance. Justice Olatoregun subsequently struck out the case.
In an affidavit earlier sworn in support of the suit, Mr Omokore had claimed that certain allegations of fraud levied against him and two companies, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited, in which he has vested interest, by the EFCC were in relation to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Limited.
The affidavit also claims that the companies were obliged to render some services to NPDC, the upstream subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and to also remit some monies accruing from the services to the federal government through NPDC.
Owing to allegations of default in the remittance of the sums, the EFCC had waded into the matter, invited Mr Omokore and after interrogations, it obtained an injunction seizing some of his properties.http://dailypost.ng/2016/06/20/breaking-efcc-arrests-ex-nnpc-boss-yakubu-jide-omokore/
Mr Omokore, however, claimed that the properties seized by the EFCC had been legally acquired and did not form any proceeds of illegality or violation of any law.
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