The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declined to return the alleged loot that its operatives recovered from the home of a former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mr. Andrew Yakubu.
Counsel for the commission, Mr. Faruk Abdullah, told the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja that the agency had filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgement that dismissed money laundering case it instituted against Yakubu.
The EFCC said since the seized money is still subject of an ongoing litigation before the appellate court, it would be wrong to return them back to Yakubu.
Consequently, it prayed the high court to dismiss an application the erstwhile NNPC GMD filed to compel it to return the funds to him.
Yakubu served as the group managing director of the oil firm between 2012 and 2014.
Recall that the EFCC raided Yakubu’s guest house at Sabon Tasha, Kaduna State in 2017 and discovered $9.7million and £74,000 which was alleged to have been concealed in a fireproof safe inside the house.
Subsequently, the Federal High Court in Kano, on February 13, 2017, granted an interim order for the recovered monies to be forfeited to the federal government.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna, in 2018, upheld the forfeiture order.
However, following his arraignment on money laundering charge, Yakubu told the trial court that the seized monies were part of gifts he received on various occasions.
In a judgement delivered by Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja on March 31, 2022, Yakubu was discharged and acquitted.
The judge held that the EFCC was unable to adduce sufficient evidence in support of the charge, adding that it failed to prove that the defendant received all the monies at once.
He described Yakubu’s defence as “credible”, stressing that EFCC failed to do a good job in its investigation.
The judge held that the defendant, having been discharged and acquitted, there was no more basis for FG to continue to retain the monies it seized from him.
