Court Orders Interim Forfeiture Of N150m Allegedly Belonging To Nicholas Mutu

Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo Giwa of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, October 31, 2019, ordered the interim forfeiture of N150 million (One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira), allegedly belonging to Nicholas Mutu Ebomo.

Mutu was the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

This was contained in a statement by EFCC’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujeran.

According to the commission, while moving the application for the forfeiture order, EFCC’s counsel, Iheanacho stated that the money was recovered by the EFCC in the course of investigating contracts awarded by the NDDC.

He affirmed that NDDC engaged the services of Starline Consultancy Services to recover funds owed it by oil and gas companies and that Starline sought the assistance of the House Committee on NDDC in the recovering of the funds.

The oil companies eventually paid the debts to Starline, with a total sum of N10 billion being realised.

According to the prosecutor, investigation further revealed that Hon Ebomo received bribe and kickbacks to the tune of over N400 million (Four Hundred Million Naira) as appreciation for his role in using the office of House Chairman on NDDC to facilitate the recovering of the monies.

Iheanacho said the money the Commission is seeking its forfeiture to the federal government is the N150 million refunded by Hon Ebomo in favour of the EFCC Recovery Fund Account.

Justice Giwa granted the prayer and directed that the order be published in a national newspaper for persons with interest in the fund to show cause, why the final order of the forfeiture of the funds should not be made in favour of the Federal government.