A Federal High Court Sitting in Lagos, on Wednesday, ordered the temporary forfeiture of a sum of N7,646,700,000 allegedly linked to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The money was said to have been illegally kept in Sterling Bank Plc.
According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the N7.6 billion was part of a sum of $153,310,000 which Diezani allegedly siphoned from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation sometime in 2014.
The EFCC also alleged that Mrs. Alison-Madueke stashed the money in three banks, but the Federal Government, following an order granted by another judge, Justice Muslim Hassan last year February, recovered part of the money from the other banks.
The anti-graft agency recalled that the monies recovered so far include N23.4bn, $5m and another N9.08bn out of the $153.3m.
After ruling that the N7.6bn stashed in Sterling Bank be delivered to the Federal Government, Justice Obiozor said the bank and any other interested party should appear before him to show to know why the funds should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The case was then adjourned till August 28, 2017.
