EFCC Secures Forfeiture of $9.8m Seized from Andrew Yakubu

The Federal High Court sitting in Kano on Tuesday granted an order of interim forfeiture with respect to the sum of $9.8 million recovered from a former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Andrew Yakubu by operatives of the EFCC.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had made an ex-parte application for the order of interim forfeiture.

Justice Zainab B. Abubakar, the presiding judge, similarly ordered the interim forfeiture of £74,000 also recovered by EFCC operatives during a raid on Yakubu’s mud house in Kaduna.

EFCC counsel, Salihu Sani, moved the ex parte application.

Justice Zainab in her ruling held, “That the sum of $9,772,000 (Nine Million, Seven Hundred and Seventy Two Thousand United States Dollars) and £74,000 (Seventy Four Thousand Pound Sterling) which are now in the custody of the applicant (EFCC) are in the interim forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria”

Operatives of the anti-graft agency had on 3rd February, stormed the building belonging to the former NNPC boss and recovered the sums stashed in a fire proof safe.

On February 8, 2017, Yakubu reported to the Commission’s Kano Zonal Office where he admitted to being the owner of both the house and the money recovered. He, however, reportedly claimed he got the monies as gifts.