EFCC Is A Disgrace; Sowore Fires Back
Human rights activist and convener of #RevolutionNow Movement, Comrade Omoyele Sowore, has slammed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for attacking his person for asking them to name the Nigerian “top brass” publicly which the agency claimed was involved in its biggest ever asset recovery case.
The EFCC had in a statement issued on Tuesday through its Head Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, attacked Sowore for demanding that the commission be transparent and name the culprit from whom it recovered the Abuja estate, considering that same person had been named in court documents.
The EFCC spokesman, Oyewale, had claimed that Sowore’s inquiry and outcry on the recovery was “unacceptable and grossly un-charitable.”
The Commission’s spokesman had opined that the allegation of a cover-up of the identity of the promoters of the Estate “stands logical on the head in the sense that the proceedings for the forfeiture of the Estate were in line with Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, which is a civil proceeding that allows for action-in-rem rather than action-in-personam”.
He had said that while the former allows legal actions against a property and not an individual, especially in a situation of an unclaimed property. “This Act allows you to take up a forfeiture proceeding against a chattel that is not a juristic person. This is exactly what the Commission did in respect of the Estate.”
“The proceedings that yielded the final forfeiture of the Estate were products of actionable intelligence available to the Commission. The company flagged by our investigations denied ownership of the Estate following publications made in leading national newspapers. On the basis of this, the Commission approached the court for an order of final forfeiture which Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court granted on Monday, December 2, 2024,” Oyewale argued.
Responding to the vituperation of the EFCC, Sowore described it as “most reckless and irresponsible statement,” adding that the Commission’s assertions are also “patently irresponsible”.
Maintaining his position, the activist noted that his call for the commission to name the culprit in the forfeited property was a pertinent question that needed to be answered, adding that EFCC doesn’t hesitate to ask “small time thieves to display their names and offences on placard and engage in photoshoot at the commission’s photo studios”, even when such individuals have not been presented in court.
He said, “This is the most reckless and irresponsible statement I’ve read from a government agency in a long while. The assertions here are also patently irresponsible.
“I have obtained court proceedings and an affidavit sworn to by an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission investigator who named the names of those behind this real estate fraud. I maintain that referring to the person as “Top Brass” instead of revealing publicly that it was former central Governor @Godwin Emefiele under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari smacks of an attempt to cover up his misdeeds and those of his collaborators; the truth is that the court proceedings tell otherwise.
“I will attach some court documents here so the public can see the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is a disgrace and disservice in this matter,” Sowore Stated.
Naija News House reported on Tuesday that Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) narrated before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, how former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele used three companies to pay N2.2 billion to buy a sprawling estate in the Apo area of Abuja, containing 753 Duplexes which has now been forfeited to the Nigerian government.
Naija News House had earlier exclusively reported that operatives of the EFCC found a “receipt for roofing” of the large estate in Abuja within the home of Emefiele, during a search by operatives in Lagos State.
Meanwhile, the EFCC in the court documents which SaharaReporters obtained on Tuesday revealed how Emefiele used three companies to acquire the property.
In an affidavit in support of the Motion on Notice in suit No FCT/HC/M/14519/2024, in Re: Application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for an order of final forfeiture of property contained in schedule, the EFCC said the “property is reasonably suspected to have been acquired and or developed with proceeds of unlawful activity pursuant to section 17 of the advance fee fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14, 2006 and Section 44 (2) B of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
