Mike Ozekhome
Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, may lose N75 million found in his Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) account unless he puts up a convincing argument on how he made the money.
According to the order of a Federal High Court in Lagos today, Ozekhome will temporarily forfeit the N75 million found in his account by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The presiding Judge, Justice AbdulAziz Anka, gave the order, when he delivered ruling in a Motion Ex-parte filed by the anti-graft agency.
The motion sought that Ozekhome’s account be temporarily frozen on the ground that the money deposited in his account on December 15, 2016, was suspected to be proceeds of crime.
The application was filed before the court by Rotimi Oyedepo.
Arguing the motion, an EFCC lawyer, Mr. Idris Mohammed, informed the court that the application was brought before the court pursuant to section 29 of EFCC Act.
Idris said that three exhibit 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 ordering temporary forfeiture of the account for 120 days.
Acceding to the request of EFCC, Justice Anka ordered that the N75 million domiciled with GTB be forfeited for 120 days.
The judge also ordered that any party not satisfied with the ruling could appeal.
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With this idea of freezing people's account in the name of fighting corruption and money laundry, I view this as a great step forward towards checking lodgement of stolen funds into personal accounts but the major problem with this is the fact that people would start keeping or better still, hiding money at home and other secret places.