The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has secured the final forfeiture of N827.7 million from two contractors of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
The contractors are Flank Power Resources Limited and GMFD Ventures Limited. Matthew Edevbie is the CEO of Flank Power.
The forfeiture followed the order of Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos.
This followed an affidavit by an EFCC investigator, in which the Commission prayed the court for the forfeiture of the sum to the federal government of Nigeria, being proceeds of unlawful activity.
The money was traced to the contractors’ accounts with Zenith Bank.
A breakdown of the recovery shows that N616.7m was recovered from Flank Power Resources Limited, while N211million was recovered from GMFD Ventures Limited.
It was discovered that between 2018 and 2019, Flank Power Resources Limited received the funds from the NDDC, through its account number:1015642852 , while GMFD received through account number: 1014657819 both of which are domiciled in Zenith Bank Plc.
The payments were for desilting of some areas of Niger Delta. The jobs were not done.
Besides the contract values were inflated.
The sum of N616, 679, 098.32 recovered from Flank Power Resources Limited was facilitated through 62 Zenith Bank drafts in favour of the EFCC Recovered Funds Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, while the N211million from GMFD came through 22 Zenith Bank drafts in favour of the same account.
The EFCC secured the interim forfeiture of the money on June 8, 2020 and its final forfeiture was granted by the court on June 29, 2020.
