A federal
high court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has granted the request of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to seize all but one of
the properties belonging to Government Ekpemupolo, a former militant
popularly known as Tompolo.
Ibrahim Buba, the presiding judge, gave the
order after Tompolo again failed to show up in court to honour a
summons on fraudulent land contract for the construction of the Nigerian
Maritime University.
On
Wednesday, EFCC had filed a motion before the court, seeking to freeze
Tompolo’s assets.The commission had already declared him wanted, following two
bench warrants issued against him by the court. The anti-graft agency accused
him and nine others of diverting and converting N46 billion belonging to the
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
But Tompolo
denied the allegation, accusing the federal government of witch-hunting him for
refusing to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). On Friday,
Buba granted the application to “seize all the properties belonging
to Tompolo except all properties of Global WestVessel Specialist Ltd”.
Festus
Keyamo, counsel to EFCC, told the court that the efforts of all security
agencies to arrest Tompolo had yielded no result, as they were yet to get hold
of the first accused person.
“The accused person Tompolo failed to appear
again and we brought and application for the seizure of all his
properties as provided for by law,” he said.
“If an
accused person continues to abscond from court and conceals himself from court
after a warrant of arrest has been issued, he should be auctioned by the
federal government. That’s what we have done and the court granted our
prayers to seize his properties.
“We are going to separate the charge; we are
going to keep his own until we get him or until we have auctioned his
properties. We are just going to separate them so that he will stand alone
from the other accused persons, because he is delaying the trial of
the other accused persons.” Follow us on twitter
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