By: Sunday Ejike – Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to stop the arrest and imprisonment of its chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, over a Monday’s ruling of a Kogi State High Court sitting in Lokoja which found him guilty of contempt.
The commission filed the motion for stay of execution in addition to an appeal against the conviction of its chairman by the Kogi State High Court in Lokoja.
The court found Bawa guilty of contempt and ordered his remand in Kuje prison, Abuja, for 14 days.
The trial judge, Rukayat Ayoola, ordered the Inspector-General of Police to arrest the EFCC boss and put him in prison “until he purges himself of the contempt”.
The order of the Court was based on an application filed by a nephew of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Ali Bello, a defendant facing trial on corruption charges.
The anti-graft agency, in its appeal, urged the Court of Appeal to stop the arrest and imprisonment of its chairman.
It specifically seeks “an order of interlocutory injunction” to restrain any attempt “to execute/ enforce the judgment of the trial Court pending the final hearing and determination of the appeal.”
Bello had accused the EFCC chairman of going ahead to arraign him on 15 December 2022 in disobedience to an earlier court order made on 12 December 2022.
In the said 12 December 2022 ruling, the court ruled that the arrest and detention of Bello on 29 November 2022 by EFCC and its chair, in the face of an earlier subsisting court order without a warrant of arrest or being informed of the offence for which he was arrested, is unlawful and unconstitutional.
But the EFCC had gone ahead to arraign Mr Bello on 15 December on N10 billion fraud charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja, an action the accused later complained to the Kogi State High Court was contemptuous of the 12 December 2022 ruling.
An official of the commission, Samuel Ugwuegbulam, who deposed to the supporting affidavit, affirmed that the commission has “strong, good and arguable grounds of appeal”.
He averred that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the matter as the alleged infringement of the respondent’s fundamental human rights occurred in Abuja and not in Lokoja and that, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to proceed to hear the suit.
He further pointed out that the Appellant had applied to the trial court for compilation and transmission of the record of appeal, but as of the time of filing the motion, the file of the case was yet to be released to enable transmission of the record to the registry of the Appellate Court.
“If the execution/enforcement of the judgment of the 12 December, 2022 and the pronouncement of the trial Court of 6 February, 2023 is not stayed, it will jeopardise the Appellants/Applicants’ constitutional right of appeal and exercise of his statutory functions.”
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