There is a mood in the air. Not of celebration, not yet of mourning. It is the quiet, heavy mood of reckoning. We are living in A Season of Forfeitures. Not the biblical kind where you fast and surrender. This one is judicial. Signed, sealed, and stamped by the courts. In the last few weeks, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission walked into court and walked out with the keys to houses, hotels, cars, and jewellery that once bore big names. First, the business woman. A Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, Abuja, ordered the final forfeiture of assets worth about N8.9bn linked to Aisha Achimugu. Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie held that she failed to prove the assets came from lawful sources. The catalogue: jewellery valued at N4.65bn, 11 exotic vehicles worth N4.29bn*, $50,000 and N30m in cash. The EFCC said its investigation began after tracking billions in inflows through over 136 bank accounts. 44 Then, the law officer. A Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the final forfeiture of 48 properties linked to former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami. Justice Joyce Abdulmalik said the EFCC had shown the assets were "reasonably suspected to have been acquired through illicit means and not from lawful income". The properties span Abuja, Kano, Kebbi — luxury duplexes, hotels with 131 rooms, an agro-allied factory, warehouses, filling stations, even a university campus. The EFCC had earlier sought 57, but the court found credible evidence for 9. Malami, who served from 2015 to 2023, is also facing 16 counts of money laundering and conspiracy involving billions. His party calls it politically motivated. And the pattern continues. Even the Supreme Court this week reinstated the final forfeiture of $1.4m linked to former CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, setting aside a Court of Appeal ruling. What does this all mean? The burden has shifted. The courts are no longer asking the state to prove guilt beyond doubt before touching the assets. Under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, the question is: "Can you prove this came from lawful income?" If not, it goes. Justice Abdulmalik put it plainly: the issue is not "who owns the property, but how legitimate were the funds used to acquire them". No office is a shield. From business to the former Chief Law Officer of the Federation, the net is widening. When even the AGF’s properties are listed for takeover, the message is clear: position does not immunize possession. Forfeiture is fast becoming the first consequence, not the last. We used to wait for full criminal trials. Now interim orders, "show cause" notices in newspapers, and final forfeitures are happening parallel with prosecution. The assets go to the government first, the trial continues later. The deeper question. Is this justice or optics. Is this the cleansing of a system, or the weaponizing of anti-graft tools ahead of 2027 politics? A season of forfeitures should not just be about taking. It should be about what we do with what is taken. Will the N8.9bn in jewellery and cars, the hotels and factories, translate to hospitals, schools, and power? Or will they just change custodians? Forfeiture without transparency is just transfer; justice without restitution is just noise. We are in a season but seasons end. The prayer is that when this one ends, the country is richer — not just in recovered assets, but in trust because a nation cannot be built on seized buildings alone. It must be built on the belief that tomorrow, your own sweat won’t become someone else’s loot. Is this the dawn of accountability, or just another season that will pass? #SeasonOfForfeitures #EFCC#Nigeria

Posted: 4weeks ago

Author: Editor in Chief

Current date: 15 August 2026