WHETHER THERE NEED TO BE AN INVESTIGATION, TRIAL, AND CONVICTION BEFORE THERE CAN BE A FORFEITURE?

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WHETHER THERE NEED TO BE AN INVESTIGATION, TRIAL, AND CONVICTION BEFORE THERE CAN BE A FORFEITURE? 

by Branham Chima. 
Subscribe: https://branhamchima.substack.com/embed 

✓ DEFINITION(S): 
• Forfieture: this involves the confiscation or loss of property or assets as a penalty for a criminal offense or as a result of a legal proceeding. This may include the seizure of assets related to criminal activities, such as those involved in drug trafficking or other illegal enterprises. 

✓ ANSWER: 
No. The law does not compulsorily provide a need for an investigation, trial, and conviction of the defendant before the alleged proceeds of crime may be forfeited. 

This position was encapsulated in the case of Olukoya Ogungbeje Esq. v. EFCC (CA/L/1408/2017, 18 Jul 2018) thus: ‘It is very clear from the wordings of Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related offences Act, 2006 as reproduced above that the law recognizes the power of the trial Court to make an Order of Forfeiture without conviction for an offence; that is the very essence of the provisions of Section 17 of the Act which was emphasized in Subsection (6), by clearly and emphatically providing that forfeiture under the provisions shall not be based on conviction. The sum total of the provisions of the law is that there is non-conviction based forfeiture of properties suspected to be derived from proceeds of crime, the submission by learned Counsel that there must be investigation, trial and conviction before an order of forfeiture is made by the Court is therefore a gross misconception and without foundation in law. The process and procedure of making such non-conviction based Order of Forfeiture is sufficiently stipulated in Section 17 of the Act.’ 

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