Court Orders Forfeiture Of N150m Plaza Owned By Kwara Civil Servant To FG

A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, on Thursday, ordered
the final forfeiture of a plaza valued at N150 million belonging to
a civil servant in Kwara State, Rasaq Momonu to the Federal
Government.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC), Ilorin
Zonal Office had approached the Court to give an order of final
forfeiture of Asmau Plaza situated in University Road, Tanke Area
of Ilorin after a reasonable suspicion that the said property was
acquired with proceeds of unlawful activity.

Delivering the Judgment in the case of Thursday, Justice Sikiru
Oyinloye held that the EFCC had fulfilled all the requirements of
the law in the suit and thereby ordered that the said property
should be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“I have gone through the application brought by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, I also sighted the hearing notice
issued to the respondent in the suit, Rasaq Momonu. This Honourable
Court is persuaded that he had been served with the Court
Processes.

“The application brought by the EFCC is meritorious and granted.
This Honourable Court hereby order the final forfeiture of the
Landed property known as Asmau Plaza, Tanke Road, Ilorin, Kwara
State to the Federal Government of Nigeria”

In the affidavit deposed to by Musa Gidado, an investigating
officer with the EFCC, he urged the judge to order the final
forfeiture of the Plaza which is suspected to be a proceed of
unlawful activity.

“Investigations revealed that Rasaq Momonu used his influence as
an Accountant with Kwara State Government to inflate and award
contracts for the construction of two classrooms at Ogbondoroko and
Obanisuwa Community In Kwara State.

“Investigations further revealed that the respondent who is a
Civil Servant that earns less than N100,000 in a month cannot
afford to build the house known as Asmau Plaza between 2010
-2012m.

“That I know as a fact that the respondent was confronted with
the above findings by the applicant which he did not dispute and
has agreed to forfeit the property known as Asmau Plaza to the
Federal Government of Nigeria”, he said.

Moving the application for final forfeiture on Thursday, Counsel
to the Applicant, Nnaemeka Omewa, urged the court to grant the
order based on the provisions of Section 17 of the Advance Fee
Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

“My Lord, We have a motion on notice dated 19th July 2019 and
filed on the same day, the motion is brought pursuant to section 17
of the Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud-related Offences, I urged
the Court to grant the motion.

Justice Oyinloye, however, granted the application and resolved
all the issues raised in favour of the EFCC.

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BPSR Boss Advocates e-governance for Public
Service

Just like other governments across the globe have initiated a
number of policy frameworks to reform the Public Service by
recognizing the structures, systems and processes that will enhance
the delivery of services to their citizens, Nigeria is not an
exception, says Dr. Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi.

Dr. Arabi, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Service
Reforms (BPSR), spoke at the July edition of BPSR’s lunch-time
reform seminar on “Nigeria’s E-Government Master-Plan: Challenges,
Opportunities and Protocols in the Federal Public Service.”

The seminar was held, yesterday, at the Auditorium of the
Federal Ministry of Finance, in Abuja.

The BPSR helmsman, stated that in the face of increased pace of
change, it has becomes more obvious that the traditional government
structures and systems are no longer suitable to meet the demands
of growing citizen desires and challenges of complex global
economies.

“Thus, the desire to reposition the Public Service for effective
and efficient service delivery has been the preoccupation of many
countries in both developed and developing nations,” he added.

The BPSR Director General, explained that ICT has become one of
the major driving force to improve Public Service efficiency and
effectiveness. “ICT constitutes a major element through which
governments govern, manage their resources, offer services, and
account for their performance,” he said.

He added that transforming the work culture and the mechanism of
Federal Public Service from conventional to modern is one of the
fundamental objectives of the implementation of e-government.

His words: “To ensure that computer density improve and ICT
penetrate across the Public Service to enhance service delivery,
the National Strategy for Public Service Reforms (NSPSR) supported
the effective implementation of the Strategic Plan of the OHCSF
which identified some key ICT-based projects like, the
digitalization and automation of the National Records Centre,
Karu.

“Overall success achieved under Pillar 3 of NSPSR on Public
Financial Management like IPPIS, GIFMIS, TSA, and BVN are e-base.
Part of activities of Cabinet Secretariat have been computerized.
Pocket of successes of digitalization of processes in public
service are recorded in the budgeting process, tax administration,
issuance of drivers’ license, International Passports, registration
of business, and CBT in Jamb, among others.

“As part of e-governance initiatives, BPSR in collaboration with
NITDA, Galaxy Backbone and other government agencies developed a
scorecard for ranking MDAs websites, which now serves as a peer
review mechanism among Ministries and Agencies to boost compliance
to standards for government website”.

Dr. Arabi, also stated that the seminar is part of BPSR’s
function of disseminating information on all aspects of Public
Service Reforms and to also complement OHCSF in enlightening public
servants on new innovations, policies and programmes of
government.

By PRNigeria