Akin Kuponiyi
A Lagos based human right lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN must have run into troubled waters as a Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos ordered temporary forfeiture of the sum of N75 million discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in his account domiciled with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) on Tuesday.
The presiding Judge AbdulAziz Anka gave the order while delivering ruling in a motion ex-parte filed by the anti-graft agency seeking that Ozakhome’s account be temporary frozen on the ground that the sum of N75 million deposited in it on December 15, 2016, was suspected to be a proceed of crime.
In arguing the application which was filed before the court by Rotimi Oyedepo, but argued by Idris Abdulahi Mohammed, EFCC informed the court that the application was brought before the court pursuant to section 29 of EFCC Act.
Idris also told the court that three exhibits marked exhibit 01, 02 and 03 are attached with the motion ex-parte in addition to an affidavit of urgency sworn to by an investigator of the agency, Tosin Owobo.
He urged the court to grant the application order of temporary forfeiture of the account for 120 days.
Justice Anka while acceding to the request of the EFCC ordered that Ozekhome’s account with the sum of N75 million domicile with GTB be forfeited for 120 days
The judge however ordered that any party that is not satisfied with the ruling can appeal.