Order forfeiture of Akwa Ibom senator’s houses, FG urges court

The four houses allegedly linked to Akpan are located in the Katampe Extension and Gwarimpa parts of Abuja. The panel, through the law firm of Mr. Festus Keyamo, filed the application for the interim forfeiture marked FHC/ABJ/CS/378/2018 before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja. Copies of the processes filed on April 10, 2018, were sighted by our correspondent on Sunday. Akpan was the Akwa Ibom State’s Commissioner for Finance from 2007 till 2014 and was elected as a senator in 2015. The SPIPRPP said in the motion that it was investigating him for failing to list the properties as part of his assets in the Assets Declaration Form of June 5, 2016, which he submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau as a senator. “That in EXHIBIT A, the properties listed in Schedule A to this motion were not listed by the respondent (Akpan) as part of the properties in which he has an interest,” a supporting affidavit filed along with the panel’s motion read in part. The targeted houses are located at 18 Jibril Aminu Crescent, Diplomatic Zone, Katampe Extension, Abuja; 5 Chu Okongwu Link, Diplomatic Zone, Katampe, Extension, Abuja; 11 Bola Ajibola Crescent, Diplomatic Zone, Katampe Extension, Abuja; and 22 Road, D Close, Gwarimpa Estate by Charlie Boy, Gwarimpa District, Abuja. Akpan is among serving senators, including a former Senate President, David Mark, and the incumbent Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who have recently come under the searchlight of the SPIPRPP in connection with the assets linked to them. A litigation clerk in Keyamo’s law firm, Mr. Yohanna Shankuk, stated that the Chairman of the SPIPRPP, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, informed him that “preliminary investigations revealed that the ownership of the property listed in Schedule A is shrouded in secrecy.” He alleged that “the records of the appropriate agencies do not reveal the existing owner of the properties.” But he added that “further investigations including interview of witnesses and neighbours revealed that the property may belong to the respondent (Akpan).”]]>