Court orders Former Enugu Gov, Nnamani to forfeit assets to Fed Govt

Court orders Former Enugu Gov, Nnamani to forfeit assets to Fed Govt

 

A Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered the forfeiture of multi-billion naira assets allegedly belonging to a former Enugu State Governor, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, to the Federal Government.
Among the forfeited assets are undeveloped properties and transmission equipment  of Rainbownet Limited; property of Hill Gate Investment Limited/Cuena Phones Limited; assets of Cosmo 105.5FM, and 22 duplexes at Ebeano Estate (now Fidelity Estate).

Others are Rainbownet’s shares in Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank, with a combined account balance of N4.6 million; as well as money in its bank accounts worth about N34.8 million.

The balances are in different accounts with GTBank (N313,700); Sterling Bank (N986,958); Ecobank (N24.5 million); First City Monument Bank (N3.8 million) and Zenith Bank (N761,156).
EFCC said it was awaiting details of balances in Rainbownet’s 10 accounts with Access Bank.
Rainbownet’s undeveloped property forfeited include seven plots at Independence Layout; 567.96 Square metres (Sqm) at Abakpa; 574.96 Sqm at Emene and 2,951.98 Sqm at Achara Layout.

Others to be forfeited include thousands of square metres of properties at Abia State, namely Ogbor Hill (914.633), Abayi (one and half plots), Port Harcourt Road (1,856.449), Ariaria (640.32), Umuagari (573.263) and Assannetu (954.396), as well as Abakiliki, Ebonyi State (one plot).

Also, in Onitsha, Anambra State, are Barracks (one plot), Nkpor (1088.644), Awada (465.14), Fegge (one plot); as well as 2,200.06 square miles of land at Okpumo, Awka.
The company is also to lose 693.636 square metres of undeveloped property located opposite the War Museum, Umuahia.

Assets of Rainbownet Communications Limited, including Central Switch Room, Microwave Radio, Rectifier, Microwave Backhaul Transmission, among others at various locations in Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia and Imo states are to be forfeited.

The former senator was charged along with his former aide, Sunday Anyaogu, and six firms – Rainbownet, Hillgate Nigeria, Cosmos FM, Capital City Automobile Nig Ltd, Renaissance University Teaching Hospital and Mea Mater Elizabeth High School.
Justice Mohammed Yunusa later split Nnamani’s trial from his co-accused as he was abroad receiving treatment.
EFCC re-arraigned them on 105 counts of money laundering and economic crimes involving about N4.5 billion.

Part of the alleged laundered money was from the Excess Crude Oil Funds meant for some local government areas, including Aninri, Enugu South, Agwu, Igbo Etiti and Isi Uzor, which was allegedly transferred to Nnamani’s bank account in the United States (U.S.).
The crime was allegedly committed while Nnamani was governor between 1999 and 2007. The defendants pleaded not guilty.

However, after the trial was split, four of the companies on May 19 pleaded guilty to a 10-count amended charge through their counsel.
The companies are Rainbownet, Cosmos FM, Capital City Automobile and Renaissance University Teaching Hospital.

They were alleged to have failed to comply with lawful enquiries by the commission.
On June 11, Justice Yunusa adjourned to July 7 for review of facts and sentences after EFCC’s lawyer Kelvin Uzozie told the court that he was still trying to get a list of all the companies’ assets.
Yesterday, he prayed the court to convict the companies in view of their plea after tendering some documents, including the assets’ schedule.

He urged the court to make an order of the assets’ forfeiture, and for the commission to be involved in their management.
The companies’ lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ezeome, during the alucutus (plea for mercy), urged the court to temper justice with mercy since they were first offenders.

Justice Yunusa, who said a company can be treated as a natural person in law, ordered that “the property listed in the schedule be forfeited to the Federal Government.”
He adjourned till November 12 for the trial of the remaining accused persons.