JUST IN: We can’t return $9.7m, £74,000 seized from ex-NNPC GMD—EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday gave reasons it withheld alleged stashed loot that its operatives recovered from the home of a former Group Managing Director, GMD, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu.

Yakubu served as the GMD of the NNPC between 2012 and 2014.

The EFCC, through its lawyer, Mr. Faruk Abdullah, told the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, that it has gone before the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgement that dismissed a money laundering case it instituted against the former NNPC boss.

According to the commission, since the seized funds are 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.

It will be recalled that the anti-graft agency had on the strength of a tip-off by a whistleblower, raided Yakubu’s guest house situated at Sabon Tasha, Kaduna State in 2017 and discovered the sum of $9.7million and £74,000 which he hid 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.

He told the court that people gave him monetary gifts on occasions such as birthdays, thanksgiving services, and other celebrations he hosted after he left service.