Order EFCC To Return My $9.8m, £74,000, Andrew Yakubu Tells Court

[caption id="attachment_16782" align="alignnone" width="600"] Mr. Andrew Yakubu, Ex-NNPC GMD[/caption]

Former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Andrew Yakubu has asked the Federal High Court in Kano to order the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to return the $9,772,800 and £74,000 seized from his residential apartment.

Yakubu’s plea was in reaction to an order by Justice Zainab B. Abubakar of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano, which granted the interim forfeiture order for the money to the Federal Government following an ex-parte application by the EFCC.

Recall that the anti-graft agency, following a raid at Yakubu’s house in Sabon Tasha, Kaduna on February 10, seized the huge sum of money.

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The former GMD, in a swift reaction to the raid, had stated that the recovered money which amounted to about N3bn was a gift item from some of his friends.

Yakubu, in an application filed through his lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN) said the court lacked the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the matter, being one related to a crime alleged to have been committed in Abuja, which is outside the court’s territorial jurisdiction.

According to him, by Section 45 of the Federal High Court Act, an offence shall be tried only by a court exercising jurisdiction in the area or place where the offence was committed.

He said no aspect of the perceived offence in respect of which the order was made, was committed within the court’s Kano judicial division.

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“The applicant/respondent (i.e. the Federal Government of Nigeria) lacks the competence (locus standi) to seek the interim reliefs whereof the order of this honourable court dated 13th February, 2017, was made.

“By Section 28 of the EFCC Act, only the commission has the vires (authority) to seek an order for the interim forfeiture of property under the Act. Although the EFCC was not the applicant, the order was granted in its favour in the body of the order.

“The power of this honourable court to make interim forfeiture order(s) pursuant to Sections 28 and 29 of the EFCC Act, 2004, is applicable only to alleged offences charged under the EFCC Act and not to offences cognisable under any other law,” Yakubu said.

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