An interim order of forfeiture of N510m has been granted by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja against a former Commander, Presidential Air Fleet, Vice Marshall Uko Ebong who served from 2013 to July 2015.
The interim order was granted by the Federal High Court judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed in an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, who alleged that the N510m was gotten from illegal activities carried out by the defendant.
The EFCC further alleged that “AVM Ebong, while being a public officer managed and used private companies to carry out financial transactions while concealing his identity”.
“Without any contractual agreement, a total sum of N731, 000, 000.00 was paid to Magnificent 5 Ventures Limited between May, 2014 and October, 2014 by the ONSA under the guise of payment for renovation of PAF barracks, PAF staff quarters.
“There is no proof of any work carried out by Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd based on which the above payments were made to it.
“The payments were made into the Sterling Bank Plc Account No. 0026142493 operated by Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd. Mrs Ebong Uko and her brother, Ekpo Asuquo, are also the signatories to the said bank account of Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd.”
“That upon receipt of the above funds into the account of Magnificent 5 Ventures Ltd, the funds were transferred and fixed-deposited in the Sterling Bank Account of Tripple Kay Company Nigeria Ltd.
“The transfer instructions were purportedly authorised by Mrs Ebong, the wife of AVM Ebong.”
Granting the interim order prayed by the EFCC, Justice Mohammed, in his ruling on Monday said:
“An order is hereby made for the interim forfeiture of the sum of N510,000,000 in Sterling Bank account No: 0029581583 recovered by the applicant, which funds are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.”
The judge ordered that the forfeiture should be publicised in order to allow persons of interest appear before the court within 14 days with reasons why the court should not grant a parmanent forfieture.
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