Asset Forfeiture: Court Orders FG To Notify Maina’s Father, Mother, Wife, Others

A Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to notify some members of the family, 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 had, on October 22, this year granted an ex-parte order of interim forfeiture, allowing the EFCC to temporary take possession of the assets.
The court equally ordered the EFCC 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, yesterday, with a motion on notice for an order of permanent forfeiture, Justice Folashade Giwa-Ogunbanjo, noted that although 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, noted that it may be difficult for his agency to serve all those in whose names Maina allegedly acquired the properties.