COURT ORDER PERMANENT FORFEITURE OF ASSETS LINKED TO OYO-ITA

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the permanent forfeiture of some assets returned by a suspect linked to the suspended Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita.

Details of the case were not read out in the open court when Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa made the order of final forfeiture of the monetary assets to the Federal Government.

Oyo-Ita was placed on an indefinite suspension over corruption allegations launched against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Moving the application on Thursday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s lawyer, M. S. Abubakar, said the funds were voluntarily returned to the commission as proceeds of crime.

Abubakar reminded the court that it had on June 28, 2019 granted an ex parte application ordering the interim forfeiture of the assets.

Abubakar said as of Thursday, no one had filed an application to challenge the interim order despite that it had been served on the suspect.

He therefore urged the court to grant a permanent order of forfeiture of the assets. He informed the judge that the money had been paid into an account with the Central Bank account as soon as it was returned by the suspect.

The judge went on to make the order of final forfeiture of the assets.