A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the temporary forfeiture of 75 million Naira discovered in the bank account of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The judge gave the order for the money found in Mr Ozekhome’s account domiciled with GT Bank to be frozen after listening to a Motion Ex-parte filed by the EFCC.

Justice AbdulAziz Anka who ordered that Ozekhome’s account with 75 million Naira be forfeited for 120 days, also ordered that any party not satisfied with the ruling can bring an appeal against it.

The anti-graft agency in the application filed by its counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, claimed that the money deposited in the account on December 15, 2016, was suspected to be a proceed of crime.

The EFCC has however confirmed to our Judiciary Correspondent, that the commission filed the exparte application after it discovered that the 75 million Naira was transferred into Ozekhome’s account by the Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose from his Zenith Bank account which was frozen by the EFCC in June 2016.

The commission had frozen Gov Fayose’s accounts after allegedly tracing to it, 4.7billion Naira obtained from the office of the National Security Adviser.

A judge at the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, Justice Taiwo Taiwo had on December 13, 2016 ordered that Governor Fayose’s accounts in Zenith Bank be de-frozen with immediate effect.

Justice Taiwo had described the EFCC’s action as illegal, wrongful, unlawful and unconstitutional.

Mr Ozekhome in a telephone conversation with Channels Television has however insisted that the money was part payment of his professional fees for matters which he is handling for Governor Fayose. (Channels TV)

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