Contempt: EFCC appeals against Bawa’s conviction, seeks to stop his arrest, detention
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to stop its chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, from being arrested and jailed because he was found guilty of contempt by a Kogi State High Court sitting in Lokoja on Monday.
In addition to an appeal against the conviction of its chairman by the Kogi State High Court in Lokoja, the commission filed a motion to stop the execution of the sentence.
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The court said that Bawa was guilty of contempt and put him in Abuja’s Kuje prison for 14 days.
Rukayat Ayoola, the trial judge, told the Inspector-General of Police to arrest the head of the EFCC and lock him up “until he gets rid of the contempt.”
The Court made its decision based on a request made by Ali Bello, the nephew of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. Ali Bello is one of the people on trial for corruption.
In its appeal, the agency that fights corruption asked the Court of Appeal to stop its chairman from being arrested and put in jail.
It specifically asks for “an order of interlocutory injunction” to stop any attempt to “execute/enforce the judgment of the trial Court until the final hearing and decision of the appeal.”
Bello had said that the EFCC chairman was going against a court order from 12 December 2022 by going ahead with his plan to charge him on 15 December 2022.
In the ruling from 12 December 2022, the court said that Bello’s arrest and detention by EFCC and its chair on November 29, 2022, despite an earlier court order and without a warrant of arrest or being told what crime he was arrested for, was illegal and against the constitution.
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But the EFCC went ahead and charged Mr. Bello with fraud worth N10 billion on December 15 at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The accused later told the Kogi State High Court that this went against the ruling from December 12, 2022.
Samuel Ugwuegbulam, a member of the commission, said in the supporting affidavit that the commission has “strong, good, and debatable grounds of appeal.”
He said that the trial court didn’t have the power to hear the case because the alleged violation of the respondent’s basic human rights didn’t happen in Lokoja but in Abuja. So, he said, the trial court didn’t have the power to hear the case.
He also said that the appellant had asked the trial court to put together and send the record of appeal. However, at the time the motion was filed, the case file had not been released so that the record could be sent to the Appellate Court’s registry.
“If the execution/enforcement of the judgment of 12 December 2022 and the pronouncement of the trial court of 6 February 2023 is not stayed, it will jeopardize the Appellants/Applicants’ constitutional right to appeal and the exercise of his statutory functions.”
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