EFCC Takes Action On Court’s Ruling Committing Bawa To Prison

EFCC Takes Action On Court’s Ruling Committing Bawa To Prison

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has filed a motion before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, seeking a stay of execution of the Kogi State High Court’s December 12, 2022 judgment and the consequential order made on February 6, 2023, in the suit between the commission and Ali Bello.

In a February 6th judgment, Justice Rukayat Ayoola of the Kogi State High Court granted the EFCC chairman, AbdulRasheed Bawa, an application for committal to prison for disobeying an earlier court order made on December 12, 2022.

The court also ordered that Mr Bawa be arrested and held in Kuje prison in Abuja for the next 14 days.

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The court ruled on December 12, 2022, that the arrest and detention of Mr Bello on November 29, 2022, by the EFCC and its chairman in defiance of an earlier court order, without a warrant of arrest or being informed of the offence for which he was arrested, was unlawful and unconstitutional.

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Ali Bello, a nephew of Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello, who is allegedly involved in a N10 billion fraud, had dragged Bawa to court for illegally arresting and detaining him, despite a court ruling in his favor, only for the EFCC to arraign him three days later for alleged money laundering.

According to a statement issued by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, the EFCC is seeking a stay of execution of the judgment committing Bawa to prison, as well as an order of interlocutory injunction prohibiting the appellants from attempting to enforce the trial Court’s judgment pending the final hearing and determination of the appeal.

In the supporting affidavit to the application, deposed to by Samuel Anele Ugwuegbulam, on behalf of the commission, he affirmed that the Appellants have “strong, good and arguable grounds of appeal”.

The EFCC also argued that the trial court in Kogi lacked jurisdiction to hear the case because the alleged violation of the respondent’s (Ali Bello’s) fundamental human rights occurred in Abuja and no part of it occurred in Lokoja.

The EFCC also submitted that, “If the execution of the judgment of the 12th of December, 2023 and the pronouncement of the trial Court of 6th of February, 2023 is not stayed, it will jeopardize the commission’s constitutional right of appeal and exercise of Bawa’s statutory functions.”

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