A Federal High Court in Abuja has lifted the interim forfeiture order placed on the bank account of Seadrill Mobile Unit Limited accused of oil bunkering activities.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba on Tuesday ruled that the affidavit brought through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation was doubtful and unfounded, and consequently discharged the interim forfeiture order on the UBA plc account number: 3000643888 of the firm.
“The interim forfeiture order was made on February 10, 2017 on bank account number: 3000643888. As at today no such application to make the forfeiture order absolute or affidavit for extension of time is before this court,” the judge said.
The order followed an ex parte application brought on February 10 by the AGF’s office through its counsel, Ameh Ebutte for an interim order of forfeiture of the money.
In the affidavit attached to the application, the applicant claimed the sum of $250m deposited in UBA is believed to have been illegally acquired through crime of oil bunkering.
The applicant asked the court to grant adjournment to enable a thorough investigation of the statement of account tendered by the company, which he said, has no Bank Verification Number.
But Seadrill’s counsel, Mayowa Owolabi asked the court to discharge the order for being “frivolous, reckless and malicious.”
He said the claims by the federal government was orchestrated and false, adding that the bank records of the international oil company shows that accruals from its operations in Nigeria is not up to the amount claimed.
Also counsel to UBA, Uchenna Okafor brought an affidavit attaching the corporate account statements of the company, asking the court to discharge the order.
The court had on February 28 further adjourned the case to March 14 after Senator Ameh Ebutte pleaded for more time on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act to investigate the account statement tendered by Seadrill.
But at the resumed hearing on Tuesday, Ebutte’s counsel, Barr Moses did not produce any document of findings to show cause why the forfeiture order should be made absolute and he did not file any counter affidavit to the defence objections.
