The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the permanent forfeiture of 48 properties linked to former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to the Federal Government.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik ruled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had provided sufficient grounds to justify the forfeiture, holding that the assets were reasonably suspected to have been acquired through proceeds of unlawful activities.
The court found that Malami, his relatives and companies connected to the properties failed to refute the EFCC’s claims regarding the source of the funds used to acquire the assets.
Before issuing the final order, Justice Abdulmalik dismissed several applications and motions filed by the respondents, describing them as lacking merit.
She stressed that the case was not about who owned the properties but whether the money used to acquire them was legitimately obtained.
“The issue before the court is not who owns the property, but how legitimate are the funds used to acquire the property,” the judge said.
She added that the respondents had “not dislodged the reasonable suspicion that the property was acquired by unlawful activities.”
Based on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, the court granted the EFCC’s request for final forfeiture of the 48 properties.
However, the court lifted the interim forfeiture order on some of the other properties.
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YINMU