{"id":63286,"date":"2023-03-28T18:22:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T18:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=63286"},"modified":"2023-03-28T18:22:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T18:22:28","slug":"efcc-tackles-kogi-governor-yahaya-bello-over-forfeiture-of-14-properties-n400m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=63286","title":{"rendered":"EFCC tackles Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello, over forfeiture of 14 properties, N400m"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EFCC Asks Court to Dismiss Gov Yahaya Bello\u2019s Application to Vacate Forfeiture Order on 14 Properties, N400m<\/b><\/p>\n

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, urged Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos to dismiss the application by Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, seeking to vacate the forfeiture order in respect of 14 properties and the sum of N400m.<\/p>\n

The court had, on February 22, 2023, granted a preservation order of the properties linked to the Kogi State government and reasonably suspected to have been derived from unlawful activities, pursuant to Sections 9 and 10 of the Proceeds of Crimes (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0properties including \u00a0\u201cHotel Apartment Community, Burj Khalifa lying, being and situate at, Plot 160 Municipality NO 345-7562, Sky View Building No 1, Property No 401, Floor 4, Dubai U.A.E.\u201d,\u00a0 were reasonably suspected to have been derived from unlawful activity.<\/p>\n

At the resumed sitting today, the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN informed the court that the preservation order had been published in the\u00a0Punch Newspaper<\/i>, in line with the court\u2019s directive to advertise the same in one of the national dailies.<\/p>\n

Oyedepo said: \u201cWe were directed to make a publication of the said Order and we have complied with the order of the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an affidavit to the Order dated 22nd February, 2023, which was complied with on the 24th February, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cSequel to that, we have received a notice of intention to oppose the making of the preservation order and we have equally responded\u201d.<\/p>\n

Responding, the Kogi State Governor, through his counsel, Abdulwahab Mohammed SAN, sought to vacate the order of the court, saying, \u201cWe have an application subject to your lordship\u2019s convenience.\u00a0 We are ready to move the application. It was filed on March 9, 2023. The application is seeking your indulgence to vacate the order of the court made on the 22nd of February, 2023.<\/p>\n

He argued that most of the properties sought to be forfeited were acquired by Bello before he became the Governor of the state and that the Commission lacked the power to proceed against the governor as he enjoys immunity under the constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy virtue of the position of the applicant (Kogi State Governor), you cannot proceed against him under any law, according to Section 308 of the Nigerian Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to prosecute or forfeit his properties, you have to wait till he no longer enjoys those benefits of a Governor,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

He, therefore, urged the court to grant his client\u2019s prayers and vacate the order<\/p>\n

In opposing the application, EFCC counsel Oyedepo relied on depositions in the 12-paragraph counter-affidavit and a written address dated 28 March, 2023, \u00a0stating that the applicant failed to reply to the counter-affidavit made by the prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Usman against Garke, it was reported in 2003, LPLR 3431, Supreme Court, and our submission is that failure to reply to the counter-affidavit has a single legal consequence that the respondents are agreeing to the application. We urge your lordship to hold that the failure to respond is deemed admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have cited authorities to this effect, one of which is Patience Jonathan and the FGN, in paragraph 1.08 of our submission. The Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 prescribes the mode of challenging the preservation order of the court and the steps to be taken by the party challenging the making of the preservation order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oyedepo submitted that one of the requirements that the application must contain is that the applicant must show his interest in the property concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from Paragraph 4H and I of the affidavit in support of the notice of intention, there is nothing before this Honourable court showing, by way of credible evidence, how the properties were acquired.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our counter-affidavit, we have established how the properties were acquired and there is nothing challenging how the properties were acquired.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was deposed is that, most of the properties were obtained before he became Governor of Kogi State and the properties were not acquired through illegal means.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u201dWithout establishing the interest of the applicant, the application is bound to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the immunity clause as contained in Section 308 of the 1999 constitution, Oyedepo said: \u201cthe Provision of S308 will not and cannot be construed to a ridiculous extent of preventing the state from investigating the beneficiary of the section.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far back as 2002, in the case of Fawehinmi and IGP, the court mentioned that a person protected under S308\u00a0can be investigated; and the fact that someone is under immunity does not prevent the state from investigating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere a state governor is reasonably suspected to have committed a financial crime, the state can investigate for evidence that will be used in prosecution when he no longer enjoys the immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oyedepo also argued that the steps the prosecution was taking \u201cis a step for preservation and it cannot be stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further told the court that, out of the entire assets that the EFCC seeks to preserve, only one asset was declared in the applicant\u2019s Declaration of Assets Form and that nothing had been said in the affidavit to challenge \u201cthe reasonability of our suspicion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He, therefore, urged the court to dismiss the prayers of the applicant and order him to tell the court how the properties were acquired.<\/p>\n

Justice Oweibo adjourned the matter till April 20, 2023 for ruling.<\/p>\n

\u25aa\ufe0e By Wilson Uwujaren<\/strong>, Head, Media & Publicity, EFCC<\/p>\n

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EFCC Asks Court to Dismiss Gov Yahaya Bello\u2019s Application to Vacate Forfeiture Order on 14 Properties, N400m The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, urged Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos to dismiss the application by Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, seeking to vacate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[759,164,5706],"class_list":["post-63286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bello","tag-efcc","tag-n400m"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}