Justice Dehinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Monday, April 7, 2025, ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N13m recovered from one Chinedu Chinedu Vincent Ezeudemba to the Federal Government.
Ezeudemba had obtained the money from a victim by claiming that he had Chinese Yuan to exchange for Naira.
The Judge gave the order, following a motion on notice filed by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos through its lawyer, C.C. Okezie.
Justice Dipeolu had earlier ordered the interim forfeiture of the fund and also ordered the publication of the order in a national newspaper for any interested party to show cause why the sum of money should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government.
Moving the application for the final forfeiture of the money, Okezie told the court that the application was supported with an affidavit deposed to by Abubakar Gozaki, an operative of the EFCC.
In the affidavit, Gozaki told the court that the Commission received a petition against one Liu Hui Jing and Chinedu Vincent Ezeudemba for allegedly obtaining by false pretence and forgery to the tune of N40,000,000.
According to him,” Sometime in June 2023, Chinedu Vincent Ezeudemba falsely represented to the victim that he had Chinese Yuan and wanted to exchange it for Naira.
“Based on that pretence, the sum of N40,000,000 was transferred to Ezeudemba’s Opay account number, 9065945449.
“However, upon payment of the said sum, the suspect refused to transfer the Chinese Yuan to the victim; rather, he issued fake telex copies.”
Gozaki, in the affidavit, also stated that investigation revealed that the suspect converted the sum ofN27,000,000 to his personal benefit, with an outstanding balance of N13,000,260, which is now the subject of the final forfeiture.
Okezie, therefore, told the court that the sum of N13m found in the account of Chinedu Vincent Ezeudemba was reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities.
She further submitted that the interim forfeiture order had been published in a national newspaper in compliance with the directive of the court.
After listening to the EFCC’s counsel, Justice Dipeolu held that he found merit in the argument of the applicant and he ordered the final forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
