Former NNPC GMD Andrew Yakubu sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for holding onto his $9.8 million after being exonerated of fraud charges.
The complaint, filed at a federal high court in Abuja, also names the CBN and GTB as respondents.
The EFCC searched the former NNPC chief’s Kaduna home on February 3, 2017, and found $9.8 million and £74,000 in a fireproof safe.
The EFCC asset disclosure form he filled out in 2015 allegedly excluded the money.
On March 16, 2017, Judge Ahmed Mohammed arraigned Yakubu on six money laundering and asset declaration charges.
Yakubu was acquitted in March 2022.
In the original summons, FHC/ABJ/CS/231/2023, filed before Inyang Ekwo, another judge, Yakubu, via his attorney, Ahmed Raji, requests the court to decide whether the EFCC should keep his confiscated funds after the decision.
He wants the court to order the defendants to transfer the funds to him immediately while the EFCC appeals.
Yakubu also seeks an order instructing the defendants to promptly put the funds into the federal high court’s chief registrar’s account or an account controlled by the chief registrar, the EFCC, and him until the appeal.
In a preliminary objection, the EFCC requested that Yakubu’s plea be dismissed.
Faruk Abdullah, the EFCC lawyer, called the petition an abuse of the judicial process and argued the court lacked jurisdiction due to appeals pending before superior courts.
The EFCC stated in an affidavit supporting the application that most of Yakubu’s depositions needed to represent the case accurately.
The hearing has been postponed until May 18.
