John Ozigi, a Nigerian Army general, has forfeited a princely sum of N426.7million to the federal government on the orders of a Federal judge, sitting in Lagos on Friday, May 15, 2020.
Ozigi, a retired Brig-General had been standing trial for alleged graft in the hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which claimed before the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Muslim Hassan, that the cash was from the proceeds of crime and should be seized from him.
Based on EFCC’s prayers, the court had earlier placed an interim forfeiture order on the cash and asked EFCC to issue a public notice to whoever claims ownership of the cash to come forward with justifiable reasons why the money should not revert to the federal government and joined two companies-company, Diamond Head Ventures, and Dev. Company Ltd-as co-defendants.
The Commission, in an affidavit deposed to by one of its operatives, Clever Ibrahim, stated that the first respondent, Ozigi, was an officer of the Nigerian Army, while the second respondent, Diamond Head Venture, was a business name owned and incorporated by him in a bid to use same and commit the crime and asked the court to permanently seize the cash to the government of Nigeria.
The Commission, in the application, also stated that the first respondent was a salary earner and a public officer with an estimated monthly salary of about N750,000 and could not have ordinarily raised such amount of money in one fell swoop.
