An interim forfeiture decision against properties owned by businessman Alhaji Abubakar Ismaila Isa Funtua was overturned by the Federal High Court in Abuja, which held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had overreached its authority. In a ruling in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1197/2024, Justice Emeka Nwite criticized the EFCC for failing to prove that the properties were the proceeds of crime and for hiding important facts.
Following an ex-parte appeal by the EFCC to confiscate three Abuja properties in the districts of Durumi and Maitama, the interim order was given on August 27, 2024. Through his attorney, Femi Atteh, SAN, Funtua submitted an application to revoke the order along with an affidavit demonstrating cause. Justice Nwite concurred that no illegal source of funding was established by the anti-graft agency.
The judge denied the EFCC's request for a final forfeiture, ruling that the properties were not obtained through the proceeds of crime. He called it "a desperate attempt to make an act a crime where none exists" that the Commission was trying to treat a commercial loan issue as a criminal matter.
"It is not the EFCC's responsibility to enforce a loan transaction that went sour, or to act as a commercial midwife to save a bank from its negligence," the court ruled. According to Justice Nwite, the EFCC was not a party to the loan agreements it was attempting to enforce, and funds lent by banks belong to the bank rather than depositors.
He further criticized the EFCC for not disclosing that there were related lawsuits pending in court, calling this a concealment of important information.
This decision follows months after the EFCC was fined ₦2 million by a different court, presided over by Justice Aminu Abdullahi, for violating Funtua's fundamental rights during an earlier detention and interrogation.
He insisted on knowing the petition or allegation against him during the interrogation, but the cops just told him they were following "orders from above."
In another judgement by Justice M.O. Olajuwon, the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 3, 2024, discharged an ex-parte order made on May 7, 2024 empowering the EFCC to instruct the Managing Directors of banks to stop all outward payment, operation or transactions on accounts linked to Isa.
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