Presidential Panel: Court orders interim forfeiture of Nwaoboshi’s properties

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered an interim forfeiture of properties belonging to the lawmaker representing Delta North senatorial district, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi.

Delivering judgment on Tuesday, July 2nd, in suit no FHC/ABJ/CS/1127/18 filed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property on behalf of the Federal Government, Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo, also placed a post-no-debit order on 22 bank accounts linked to Nwaoboshi.

The embattled lawmaker was recently referred to the Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions, Federal Ministry of Justice by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel led by Chief Okoi Obono-Obla for allegedly making false assets declaration in his Form CCB1 submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau.

According to the ruling, 14 properties and 22 bank accounts linked to the senator are to be temporarily forfeited to the federal government.

The two forfeiture order read: “That interim order is hereby made forfeiting all the property alleged belong to the 1st Respondent (Nwaoboshi) being suspicious assets or assets far and beyond the legitimate income of the 1st Respondent particularly those on the amended schedule to this application pending the investigation or motion on notice in the matter.

“That an order is hereby made restraining the 2nd-5th Respondents from posting any debt or withdrawals on all the accounts belonging to the first respondents particularly those on the amended schedule to the application attached to this order.”

The court order which was signed by the court Registrar, Blessing Chibuzo-Ugwu, also said that any person with interest or third party interest in the listed properties should within 30 days show reasons why the properties should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

While the 22 bank accounts are domiciled in four different commercial banks, the forfeited properties are located in Delta, Abuja and Lagos.