A Federal High Court in Abuja has given interim forfeiture orders on N110.4 million traced to the bank accounts of one Mr James Erebuoye and seven other suspects by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
The ICPC suspects the money to be part of the proceeds of crime, the commission said.
The forfeiture order followed an ex parte motion filed on behalf of the ICPC by Raheem Adesina before Justice D. Okorowa. Besides the amount, ICPC also requested for the court for an interim forfeiture of a Toyota Lexus and a Toyota Venza SUV, including an Ipad device.
These were contained in a statement issued on Thursday by ICPC’s spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, with the title, ‘ICPC secures interim forfeiture of N110.4m traced to a primary school teacher and her accomplices.’
It said the items were seized by the anti-graft agency from Erebuoye and his accomplices, who allegedly benefitted from the over N550 million illicit fund lodged in the account of a primary school teacher, one Mrs Roseline Egbuha.
Egbuha is a teacher at Ozala Primary School, Abagana, Anambra State, and was arrested in June 2020 by the commission for alleged money laundering.
During her interrogations, she was said to have informed her investigators that the money lodged in her account belonged to her son, 24-year-old Chidozie Ejeaka, whose whereabouts could not be established.
To enable it to undertake proper investigations into the money, the ICPC had posted a ‘Post No Debit’ on the account, while the commission went ahead to press a case of forfeiture of the suspected proceeds of crime was instituted against the teacher.
The commission later found that the sum of N110,364,592.4 had been secretly removed from the account and into multiple accounts belonging to Erebuoye and eight other persons, among them companies.
‘’The money to be forfeited includes N17.4mn that was transferred to the bank account of Erebuoye, N14.2mn to an account owned by one Ojo Alonge, N16.4mn to a company called DY Bako and Sons Ltd and N30.8mn to another company known as Dorason Construction Ltd,” the statement said.
‘’The order for interim forfeiture also covers the sums of N7.1mn traced to an account owned by Owoyemi Mayowa, N8.2mn and N6.5mn traced to the bank accounts of Emon Okune and Maureen Chidinma, respectively,’’ ICPC said in the statement.