Courts orders former NNPC GMD Andrew Yakubu to forfeit recovered $9.8m, £74,000 to FG

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano has ordered that the $9.8 million and 74,000 pounds recovered from a house belonging to former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Andrew Yakubu be forfeited to the federal government.

The order was sequel to an ex parte application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking an interim forfeiture of the recovered money to the federal government.

According to the official statement of the EFCC, the ex parte application was moved by Salihu Sani, counsel for the applicant.

Justice Zainab Abubakar in her ruling on Tuesday, February 14, held “That the sum of $9,772,000 (Nine Million, Seven Hundred and Seventy Two Thousand United States Dollars) and £74,000 (Seventy Four Thousand Pound Sterling) which are now in the custody of the applicant (EFCC) are in the interim forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria”

The anti-graft agency, on Friday, February 10, announced it recovered the money (about N3 billion in total) from the Kaduna home of the former GMD.

The huge cash was hidden in a fire proof safe, the commission had said.

The raid of the facility was sequel to an intelligence which the commission received about suspected proceeds of crime believed to be hidden in the slums of Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna.

On arrival at the facility, the caretaker of the house, one Bitrus Yakubu, a younger brother to Andrew Yakubu, disclosed that both the house and the safe where the money was found belong to his brother, Andrew Yakubu.

Yakubu, who reportedly admitted owning the money has since been arrested and is in custody of the EFCC.