The former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, has asked a Federal High Court sitting in Kano to order the Federal Government to return to him the money that was found in his home in Kaduna.
Yakubu, in a motion on notice with suit number FHC/ICN/CS/24/2017, filed by his lead counsel, Mr. Ahmed Raji, SAN, asked the court to set aside the forfeiture order that granted FG ownership of the money which was discovered by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on February 9.
He wants the court to set aside the order and return the $9,772,800 and £74,000,000 which he said belongs to him. The former NNPC boss insisted that the court lacked the jurisdiction to grant FG ownership of his money. According to him, the court, was bereft of the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the motion that culminated to the forfeiture order since it related to a crime that was alleged committed in Abuja.
Yakubu was Group Managing Director of the NNPC between 2012 and 2014. He was sacked by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan for alleged insubordination and corruption. EFCC operatives raided his house situated in Sabon Tasha, Kaduna State, following a tip-off by a whistle-blower. The agency disclosed that it discovered the sum of $9.7m and £74,000 that Yakubu hid in a fireproof safe inside the house.