Assets forfeiture: Court orders govt to notify Maina’s father, others

A Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to notify some family members of former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, about its request for a permanent forfeiture of the 23 landed properties he allegedly acquired illegally.

The court, on October 22, 2019, granted an ex parte order of interim forfeiture which allowed the EFCC to temporary take possession of the assets.

The court also ordered the EFCC to publish the interim forfeiture order in a national daily to enable interested parties make claim to the properties, failing which they would be permanently forfeited to the government.

When the EFCC returned to the court on Tuesday with a motion on notice for an order of permanent forfeiture, Justice Folashade Giwa-Ogunbanjo averred that though Maina was served with the motion, there was no evidence that the others, in whose names the EFCC claimed the properties were bought, had been served with the fresh motion.

EFCC’s lawyer Mohammed Abubakar said it may be difficult for the agency to serve all those in whose names Maina allegedly acquired the properties.

Justice Giwa-Ogunbanjo directed Abubakar to apply for substituted service to enable him publish the new motion in a national daily as he did with the ex parte interim forfeiture order.

When Abubakar said he would file an ex parte motion to that effect the next day, the judge adjourned till November 21, 2019 (tomorrow), for the hearing of the motion for an order to publish the motion on notice for permanent forfeiture.

In the court documents it filed, the EFCC claimed that Maina unlawfully acquired some landed properties in the names of his father, mother, wife and son.

It listed some of the properties to include: Plot MFl9 Cadastral Zone, covered by MFCT/12/AMAC/KR/MEI9 AGIS FCT48215 (MISC6OI4), located in Karu, Abuja (allegedly acquired in his mother’s name); Plot 18 Road F Malali North East Residential Layout, in Kaduna (said to have been acquired in 2017, using his late father’s name) and Block 23 Flat 2 located at Life Camp (2 bedrooms semi-detached) in Abuja (in wife’s name).

Many others, the anti-graft agency said, are in Abuja, Kaduna and Nasarawa states.