Appeal Court has affirmed the forfeiture of N1.5bn linked to Ex-NIRSAL MD Aliyu Abdulhameed and Steven Ogidan.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the final forfeiture of N1.582 billion traced to Aliyu Abdulhameed, the former Managing Director of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and his ally, Steven Ogidan.
Delivering judgment on Friday, a panel of justices led by Justice Okon Abang unanimously dismissed appeals filed by Steve Ogidan, a private consultant, and Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed.
The appellate court held that the lower court acted properly in granting the forfeiture, noting that one of the appellants had “voluntarily returned the funds to the government through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).”
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According to EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale in a statement released Friday, the appellate court affirmed the Federal High Court’s January 22 ruling, delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, ordering the permanent forfeiture of the money.
The funds were allegedly linked to “bribery, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering” involving the two men under NIRSAL’s Project Monitoring, Reporting and Remediation Offices (PMROs) scheme.
In February 2024, the EFCC obtained an interim forfeiture order against the sum, based on a suit filed under Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1686/2023. The anti-graft agency alleged the funds were proceeds of bribery collected by Mr Ogidan from field consultants under the PMRO scheme, which he was tasked to supervise.
Mr Ogidan had served as the National Coordinating Consultant for the PMRO system, while Mr AS Abdulhameed was the Managing Director of NIRSAL. The EFCC further alleged that the bribery and misconduct led to the abandonment of the project.
In Mr Oyewale’s words, “Investigation by the commission against the duo led the Commission to a reasonable suspicion that Ogidan acquired the sum through illegitimate activities, specifically bribery from consultants he was supposed to monitor and supervise, which resulted in leaving the job totally undone.”
In his filings opposing the final forfeiture, Mr Ogidan argued that the N1.582 billion represented the legitimate income of his consultancy firm, Successory Nigeria Ltd (SNL), which had been contracted by NIRSAL to implement and manage the PMROs nationwide.
He claimed the contract began in 2017, was renewed multiple times until 2022, and covered over 600 field officers across Nigeria. According to him, the sum in question was “contractual remuneration for services rendered.”
Mr Ogidan also submitted an affidavit to show cause, alleging he was coerced into returning the money.
He claimed that while in EFCC custody, he was pressured by then EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa, through officials like Mahmud Tukur, to sign an undertaking to repay the funds in order to avoid prosecution.
“I took several loans from friends and financial institutions to pay EFCC the sum of N1,582,000,000,” he stated, attaching a loan agreement with Dignity Finance & Investment Ltd to substantiate his claim.
He further alleged that the EFCC targeted him for supporting Mr Abdulhameed’s political ambition and for “hiring only Christians and Southerners as zonal consultants”—accusations the EFCC has firmly denied.
In response, EFCC investigative officer Mubarak Isa swore a counter-affidavit denying any coercion. He stated that both Mr Ogidan and other suspects made their statements “voluntarily, in the presence of legal counsel.”
“The EFCC never made it a condition precedent that unless he made the payment, he would not get his freedom from further harassment,” Mr Isa added.
He also clarified that the forfeiture application followed a letter from Mr Ogidan’s solicitors seeking case compounding under Section 14(2) of the EFCC Act.
EFCC counsel Faruk Abdullah argued in court that the funds were directly traceable to corrupt activities and that “no credible reason was shown to prevent its forfeiture.”
“No reasonable cause has been shown why the funds subject to the order of interim forfeiture should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” he submitted in the EFCC’s application dated April 16, 2024.
After the lower court issued the final forfeiture order, Messrs Ogidan and Abdulhameed filed separate appeals, challenging the application of Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act by the trial court.
The appeal, heard on April 10, was decided on June 20. In rejecting it, Justice Abang stated that the Federal High Court acted within the law—especially since the appellant “in his voluntary request for an out-of-court settlement willingly returned the sum to the federal government, through the EFCC.”
