Court orders final forfeiture of N400m linked to AVM Abdulraheem

By Taiye Agbaje

Justice Emeka Nwite of Federal High Court in Abuja has made an order for final forfeiture of the sum of N400 million allegedly linked to AVM Mikail Abdulraheem to the Federal Government.

The Judge granted the order after counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abba Muhammed, SAN, moved the motion to the effect.

He held that the application was meritorious.

Although the ruling was delivered on March 17, the enrolled order was sighted on Thursday n Abuja.

Justice Nwite said: “It is hereby ordered as follows:

“That the applicant has satisfied the condition for grant of order sought and accordingly the application is hereby granted as prayed.

“That an order of final forfeiture is hereby made by this honourable court forfeiting to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the sum of four hundred million naira (N400,000,000.00) paid at the instance of Air Vice Marshall Abdulraheem Mikail Babatunde to Cosgrove Investment Limited which is reasonably suspected to be the proceeds of unlawful activities.

“Issued at Abuja under the Seal of the Court and the Hand of the Presiding Judge, this 17th day of March, 2026.”

The EFCC had, in the motion on notice marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/2710/2025, dated Feb. 2 and filed on Feb. 3 by Muhammed listed five grounds why the application should be granted.

According to him, the court has the statutory powers under the provision of Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, to grant the prayers sought.

“The funds sought to be forfeited is reasonably suspected to be proceed of unlawful activities,” he said.

Muhammed stated that on Dec. 31, 2025, the court made an interim order forfeiting the funds to the Federal Government.

He said the order of the court was published on page 25 of Vanguard Newspaper of Jan. 8.

The lawyer, however, said that no reasonable cause had been shown why the funds, which formed subject of the order of interim forfeiture, should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

In the affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Abubakar Kwaido, an investigating Officer with the Economic Governance Section of the EFCC, he said he was one of the investigators in the case.

He said the commission “received an Intelligence on the purchase of several luxurious and high-end properties by several public officials and private individuals using unlicensed bureau de change (BDC) operators in a bid to launder suspected proceeds of unlawful activities.”

According to him, upon receipt of the Intelligence, it was assigned to my team for discreet investigation.

The officer said in the course of the investigation, a property described as House No. CC13 Chatteaux Estate Wuse II, a gated six-bedroom luxurious contemporary mansion, worth N400 million to be built by Cosgrove Investment Limited and Aeronautical Engineering & Technical Services Limited (AETSL) featured.

“Aeronautical Engineering & Technical Services Limited (AETSL) is a company established to develop the capability to conduct in—country Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) of Nigerian Air Force aircrafts and associated equipment amongst others and the members of the Board of Directors of the AETSL are drawn from within the Nigerian Air Force.

“AVM Mikail served in AETSL between 2012 and 2014,” Kwaido said.

He said AETSL transferred the total sum of N122 million in two tranches of N100 million on Dec. 23, 2013 and N22 million on Jan. 21, 2014, to AVM Abdulraheem’s company – Mofaza-Mafoz Nigeria Limited with account number 0483004284 domiciled in Eco Bank.

“The statement of account of Mofaza-Mafoz Nigeria Limited stated above showing the inflows is hereby annexed and marked as Exhibit EFCC 1,” he said.

The investigator alleged that Abdulraheem is the Managing Director of Mafoza-Mafoz Nigeria Limited and Mafoza Technologies Nigeria Limited.

(NAN)