The federal high court in Abuja has ordered the interim forfeiture of N30.7 million suspected to be proceeds of fraud linked to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
Justice Emeka Nwite granted the order on Monday after ruling that an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was meritorious.
The judge ordered that the funds be temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government.
Justice Nwite also directed that the forfeiture order be published in a national daily newspaper, inviting any interested party to show cause within 14 days why the money should not be permanently forfeited.
He adjourned the matter until January 22 for a report on compliance.
The application, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2775/2025, was filed on December 23, 2025, and moved on January 2, 2026. The EFCC sought two reliefs, including an interim forfeiture order for the sum of N30,700,000, which it said was reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
EFCC counsel, Emenike Mgbemele, told the court that the application was brought under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, stressing that the proceeding was a non-conviction-based asset forfeiture.
He explained that the funds were lodged in the EFCC recovery account domiciled with United Bank for Africa (UBA) through four manager’s cheques—three valued at N10 million each and one of N700,000—raised in the name “M/C Draft Outstanding Account.”
In an affidavit in support of the motion, an EFCC investigator, Bilkisu Abubakar, said she was assigned to investigate allegations of fraudulent activities involving some high-profile officials of the NNPC following petitions received by the commission.
She said the investigation involved intelligence gathering, bank enquiries, analysis of financial records, correspondence with agencies such as the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and the invitation and interrogation of persons of interest.
According to Abubakar, findings revealed that Adamu Yakubu, a bureau de change operator, featured prominently in the financial records obtained during the investigation.
She said Yakubu was invited on September 2, 2025, and voluntarily made a statement, submitting a ledger containing records of transactions, customers’ details, and foreign exchange sales.
She stated that analysis of the ledger showed that over N4 billion was transferred to the accounts of various individuals and companies on the instruction of one Ibrahim Sani, a staff member of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
Abubakar added that the N30.7 million sought to be forfeited remained in Yakubu’s possession from funds he claimed were given to him by Sani.
She said Sani was invited on September 15, 2025, and made a statement admitting that he used Yakubu to transfer funds to different individuals and companies.
According to her, Sani also confirmed that he usually deposited large sums of money in dollars with Yakubu, who would then transfer the naira equivalent to accounts provided by him.
The investigator noted that Sani neither verified nor ascertained the source of the funds, adding that the monies were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
However, Abubakar disclosed that Sani denied ownership of the N30.7 million found in Yakubu’s possession, while Yakubu also denied owning the funds.
She added that Yakubu subsequently raised four manager’s cheques in favour of the EFCC recovery account, copies of which were attached to the application.