A Nigerian
judge on Thursday ordered the seizure of a flat linked to the former head of
the country’s National Intelligence Agency, after more than $43 million in cash
was
found during an anti-corruption raid.
Judge Saliu
Seidu, sitting at the Federal High Court in Lagos, said the apartment in the
upmarket Ikoyi area of the city should be temporarily forfeited to the
government, pending any challenge within 14 days.
Acting on a
tip-off, agents from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission raided the
property on April 12 this year and discovered just under $43.5 million (37.4
million euros, £33.1 million).
They also
found £27,800, as well as 23.2 million naira ($65,000, 51,000 euros, £49,600),
the court was told.
Documents
established the flat was bought in 2015 by Folashade Oke, the wife of Ayodele
Oke, who at the time was director-general of the NIA.
It was
alleged she bought the property using $1.66 million from government funds to
which her husband had access.
President
Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to cut endemic corruption in
government and has vowed to recover what he said were “mind-boggling” sums of
stolen public money.
Oke, who had
been suspended for keeping an unauthorised stash of cash in a private home, was
sacked last week with the country’s most senior civil servant, Babachir Lawal.
Lawal was
accused of awarding deals for reconstruction in areas of northeast Nigeria hit
by Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency to companies in which he had a personal
interest.
Buhari’s
handling of the two cases has been seen as a litmus test for the extent of his
anti-corruption drive, given that most of those arrested and charged so far
have been high-profile members of the main opposition.
The Oke case
was adjourned until November 30.
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