The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has discovered N840 million traced to a retired President of the Benue State Customary Court of Appeal, Mrs. Margaret Igbeta.
The anti-graft agency, has therefore asked a federal high court in Abuja, in an ex parte motion, to order the interim forfeiture of the said amount. It said that the order would prevent Igbeta from accessing the money alleged to have been obtained fraudulently in the course of her official duties.
Mrs. Igbeta was accused of operating a proxy fixed deposit account in the name of her maid, Theodora Atsu, with Ecobank Plc, where she accumulated N870,321,492.15 between 2008 and 2019.
She was said to have opened the account with her passport and the name of Atsu on March 5 2008, with an initial deposit of N8 million.
She subsequently made several other deposits, including N123,745, 925.57 and N5 million, in the months of March and May 2008.
The ICPC said that the money was far above her legitimate earnings both as a judge and the president of the customary court of appeal within the period that the account was operated.
