Ex-NIRSAL MD, Consultant Lose Again, As Appeal Court Upholds N1.5b Final Forfeiture to FG

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By JUMOKE SANNI

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Friday, June 20, 2025 upheld the January 22, 2025 ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo for the final forfeiture of N1,582,000,000 (One Billion, Five Hundred and Eighty-two Million) to the federal government, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC against Steve Olusegun Ogidan.

He was the National Coordinating Consultant of Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL and was investigated for criminal breach of trust, bribery and money laundering alongside Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed, then former Managing Director of NIRSAL.

Investigation by the Commission against the duo led the Commission to a reasonable suspicion that Ogidan acquired the sum through illegitimate activities, specifically bribery from consultants he was supposed to monitor and supervise, which resulted in leaving the job totally undone. The EFCC had on February 5, 2024 secured an order of interim forfeiture on the said amount.

Dissatisfied with the final forfeiture order, Ogidan and Abdulhameed filed separate appeals, challenging the order and seeking a determination by the Appeal Court as to whether the trial court rightly applied Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act by causing the money to be forfeited to federal government. The appeal was heard on April 10, 2025 and judgment was reserved till Friday, June 20, 2025.

In a unanimous dismissal of the appeal, by the justices of the appellate court, Justice Okon Abang in the lead judgment held that the appeals lacked merit and that the trial court could not be faulted in granting the interim forfeiture to the federal government, especially as the appellant in his voluntary request for an out-of-court settlement willingly returned the sum to the federal government, through the EFCC.