Former Kwara State governor, Dr Bukola Saraki is in a happy mood.
The Federal High Court, Lagos penultimate week overturned forfeiture judgment on two properties belonging to him.
Justice Mohammed Liman also dismissed an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) seeking final forfeiture of the properties to the Federal Government.
The properties are located at 17 and 17A MacDonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
In his judgment, Justice Liman submitted that the essence of an interim order of forfeiture is to preserve the property and prevent a suspect from taking any step in respect of such a property and that the burden is on the applicant- the EFCC to satisfy the Court that the property is a proceed of unlawful or illegal activity.
The court, however, found that the EFCC had in its affidavit in support of its application for final forfeiture stated that the properties sought to be forfeited were purchased with a personal loan that Senator Saraki obtained from the Guaranty Trust Bank.
The court agreed with the counsel to former senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki; Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN) that the burden of proof for final forfeiture is on the preponderance of evidence and that the EFCC had failed to show that the monies used to purchase the property were from the bank account of the Kwara State government house.
The court was also not satisfied that Senator Saraki had paid off the loan used to purchase the property.
‘The evidence of the transactions presented by the applicant was in respect of transactions made after he had purchased the property and the proceeds used for the purchase were legal, which are loans’, he said.
The judge, however, submitted that the EFCC failed to prove that it was entitled to the relief of final forfeiture of the properties and accordingly dismissed the application and vacated the interim forfeiture order it made on 21st October 2019.
This judgment comes after counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Mr. Nnaemeka Omewa, Esq. and counsel to Senator Saraki, Mr. Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN) had adopted their respective written addresses for and against the application.
In moving the application for the final forfeiture of the properties, counsel to the applicant, Nnaemeka Omewa told Justice Mohammed Liman that the properties were acquired with a loan obtained from the Guaranty Trust Bank and paid back by money suspected to have been diverted from the coffers of the Kwara State government.
‘There are written statements from some officials of the Kwara State government in respect of how the money was taken from the coffers of the state government and used to pay back the loan’, the counsel said.
The EFCC, therefore, asked the court to look at the merit of its case, all the exhibits attached and make an order permanently forfeiting the properties to the Federal Government.
The former Senate President through his counsel; Kehinde Ogunwumiju SAN, however, asked the court to reject the application by the EFCC.
The counsel argued that the EFCC failed to prove that the money used to pay back the loan was acquired through any illegal activity.
He also told the court that the EFCC had litigated on the same properties before the Code of Conduct Tribunal all the way to the Supreme Court and had lost.
The counsel then asked the court to dismiss the EFFC’s suit seeking the final forfeiture of the properties and to rather rule in favour of Saraki.
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