A federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, granted an interim forfeiture order on digital assets valued at $222,729.86 over fraudulent activities allegedly linked to Chinese and Filipino nationals.

The court granted the order following a motion ex-parte brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The prosecution counsel, Zeenat Atiku, while moving the application, told the court that the application was brought pursuant to Section 44 (2)(B) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 17 of the Advanced Free Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act No. 14, 2016.

Justice Alexander Owoeye, while granting the order, also directed the EFCC to publish the interim forfeiture order in a national newspaper, allowing anyone with an interest in the assets to appear before the court within 14 days to show cause why the assets should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

The judge subsequently adjourned the case to March 7, 2025, for a compliance report. In another development, the EFCC has arraigned 58 foreign nationals, comprising Chinese and Filipino nationals, before the Federal High Court in Lagos over allegations of impersonation, fraud, and attempts to destabilise Nigeria’s constitutional structure.

The defendants were separately arraigned before Justices Ayokunle Faji, Chukwujekwu Aneke, Denide Dipeolu, and Alexander Owoeye, respectively. The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The judges, therefore, ordered that they be remanded in the Nigeria Correctional Centres and adjourned their different cases to February 20, 21, 24 28 and March 18, 2025, for trial.