Court orders forfeiture of Ikoyi flat where $43.4m discovered

The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the temporary forfeiture of the flat in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos where $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 were discovered stashed in iron cabinets  in April this year.

The order of the forfeiture of the building to the Federal Government was given on Thursday by Justice Saliu Saidu following an ex parte application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the matter.

The EFCC had earlier named the wife of the sacked Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mrs. Folashade Oke, as the owner of the flat.

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

The Commission also said it she was to have purchased the property in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited, to which she and her son, Master Ayodele Oke Junior, were directors.

Payment for the purchase of the flat was said to have been made to one Fine and Country Limited.

The EFCC stated that 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 Fine and Country Limited for the purchase of the property.