N15B Ikoyi Money: Court Orders Forfeiture of Osborne Flat

Ladipo Sanusi/

A Federal High Court, in Lagos, today ordered the temporary forfeiture of Flat 7B Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, where the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 were discovered in April.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had uncovered the money stashed in iron cabinets, following a whistleblower’s alert.

NewsmakersNG broke the news of the discovery of the money and also exclusively published that the flat belonged to the wife of Ambassador Olusola Oke, the sacked Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, Folashade.

The report by NewsmakersNG was later corroborated by the EFCC.

Justice Saliu Saidu ordered the forfeiture of the flat to the Federal Government following an ex parte application by the EFCC.

The EFCC said it found out that Mrs. Oke made a cash payment of $1.658m for the purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3, 2015.

She allegedly purchased the property in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited, to which she and her son, Master Ayodele Oke Junior, were directors.

The EFCC stated that Mrs. Oke made the cash payment in tranches of $700,000, $650,000 and $353,700 to a Bureau de Change company, Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, which later converted the sums into N360,000,000 and subsequently paid it to one Fine and Country Limited for the purchase of the property.

The judge adjourned the matter till November 30 for anyone to show cause why the interim order should not be made final.

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