Federal High Court Orders NDDC Contractors To Forfeit N827.6m

The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the forfeiture of the sum of N827.6m recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from two firms described as contractors to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NCDC).

The EFCC told the court that the firms, Flank Power Resources Limited and GMFD Ventures Limited, were awarded contracts and paid by the NDDC, but failed to execute the projects, while the funds were diverted and laundered.

The anti-graft agency reports that its investigation revealed that the costs of the projects were also inflated.

Dele Oyewale, the Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, said in a statement on Monday, titled, ‘EFCC secures final forfeiture of N827.6m from NDDC contractors’, that the forfeiture order was made by Justice C. J. Aneke on June 29, 2020.

His statement said the judge had earlier made an order for interim forfeiture of the funds on June 8, 2020.

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He further said, “Matthew Edevbie is the Chief Executive Officer of Flank Power Resources Limited. It was discovered that between 2018 and 2019, Flank Power Resources Limited received the funds from the NDDC through its account number: 1015642852 , while the GMFD received through account number: 1014657819, both of which are domiciled in Zenith Bank Plc for de-silting contracts, which aside being inflated, were not executed, but diverted and laundered.

“The sum of N616,679,098.32 recovered from Flank Power Resources Limited was facilitated through 62 Zenith Bank drafts in favour of the EFCC Recovered Funds Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, while the N211m from the GMFD came through 22 Zenith Bank drafts in favour of the same account.”