Don’t unfreeze Akingbola’s accounts, AGF tells court

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami

 The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has urged a Federal High Court in Lagos not to give a former Managing Director of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc, Erastus Akingbola, access to all his assets seized in 2009 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Akingbola’s bank accounts and those of his companies had been frozen since 2009 when his trial for alleged banking fraud began.
The AGF, in a counter-affidavit to his request, contended that allowing Akingbola access to his funds will lead to the frustration of the criminal case against him, because the assets were exhibits in the criminal case, which had now gone to the Supreme Court.

The AGF claimed that Akingbola’s intention was “to cart away the alleged proceeds of fraud and crime, thereby foisting a fait accompli on the judgment of the court vis-a-vis any decision arrived at by the Supreme Court.”

These were contained in a counter-affidavit filed by the AGF in opposition to a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Akingbola, seeking an order compelling the EFCC to unfreeze his bank accounts and release all his assets confiscated since 2009.

The defendants in the suit are the EFCC and the AGF.

Akingbola is contending that it was unlawful for the EFCC to continue to hold on to his assets after the criminal case against him had been dismissed by the court on April 2, 2012.

He also contended that the EFCC had no power to seize the assets, which he claimed to have acquired prior to the period when he committed the alleged banking fraud and which were not named as defendants in the charge against him.

He, alongside his companies, whose assets were seized by the EFCC – Tropics Finance and Investments Limited; Clifton Investment Limited; Hijinks Limited; Merry Thoughts Limited; Bankinson Limited; and Tropics Securities Limited sued the AGF and the EFCC for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights.

The plaintiffs are seeking a court order mandating the defendants to immediately release their assets and bank accounts.

They are also praying the court to order the defendants to render an account and pay them all rents, profits, interests, accruals, proceeds or other incomes generated from their seized assets since December 31, 2009.

But the AGF in a counter-affidavit deposed to by a litigation clerk in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Felicia Des-Bordes, prayed the court to dismiss Akingbola’s application for being an abuse of court process.