Court orders final forfeiture of N235.4m linked to Invictus Obi

A federal high court in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of N235.4 million linked to Obinwanne Okeke, a Nigerian entrepreneur, better known as Invictus Obi.

Abdullah Liman, the judge, on March 23, 2020, ordered the interim forfeiture of the money domiciled in First City Monument Bank (FCMB) following an ex parte application dated December 18, 2019, filed by the Lagos zonal office of the EFCC.

The judge had also ordered the anti-graft agency to issue a notice in a national newspaper asking anyone opposed to the forfeiture of the money to come before the court and show cause why it should not be permanently forfeited.

Owing to no opposition, the commission on June 2, 2020, filed a motion seeking the final forfeiture of the money to the federal government.

Moving the motion on November 12, 2020, I. Sulaiman, counsel to the EFCC, asked the court to grant his prayers for final confiscation of the money.

In a statement on Thursday, Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesperson, said the judge ruled in favour of the commission granting final forfeiture of the money to the federal government.

Okeke was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at Dulles International Airport while leaving the US over $11 million internet fraud in 2019.

He admitted to have been involved in computer-based fraud between 2015 and 2019.

The 34-year-old was convicted for the alleged offences on June 19, 2020.