Nigeria, June 21 -- The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the permanent forfeiture of N1.582 billion to the Federal Government of Nigeria, affirming a ruling earlier granted by the Federal High Court.

Delivering judgement on Friday, a panel of justices led by Okon Abang unanimously dismissed the appeals filed by Steve Ogidan, a private consultant, and Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed, a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).

The court affirmed that the trial court was right in granting the final forfeiture, especially as one of the appellants had voluntarily returned the funds to the government through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to a s...