Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday, ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N2,739,836,331.31 being proceeds of illegal mining of solid minerals in Endo community, Nasarawa State.
The Judge gave the order following an application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, through its counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, dated September 27, 2024.
The application asked for the final forfeiture of the sum to the Federal Government, under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006, having suspected it to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
The court had, on July 8, 2024, granted an interim forfeiture order on the sum to the FG, as required by law to enable anyone with a legitimate claim of ownership of the money to show forth.
A statement by the EFCC’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, said that during the proceedings, counsel for the first and second defendants [Lideal Mines Limited and Etong Agrotech Nigeria Limited], Ibrahim Idris, informed the court of his withdrawal of the application on behalf of his clients, challenging the final forfeiture of the sum, which the prosecution welcomed with no objection.
Oyewale noted that the forfeited funds are in four bank accounts, all belonging to the two defendants.
N102,835,460.85 was domiciled in a Zenith Bank account belonging to Lideal Mines Ltd; while N1,288,265,692.11 which was domiciled in Zenith Bank, N1,187,909,426.70 domiciled in UBA and N160,825,751.70 in Globus Bank accounts, respectively belong to Etong Agrotech Nigeria Limited.
“Justice Nwite adjourned the matter till October 23, 2024, for hearing of the application for the final forfeiture of other sums linked to the three defendants,” the statement added.