A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Tuesday fixed April 20, 2023, to rule on a Kogi State application seeking to vacate an interim court order freezing 14 properties linked to the Kogi State governor.
Justice Nicholas Oweibo fixed the date after taking submissions from the governor’s counsel, Mr. Abdulwahab Mohammed SAN, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission counsel, Mr. Rotimi Oyedopo SAN.
The court had, on February 22, issued an interim forfeiture order following an ex parte motion to confiscate 14 properties and firms in Lagos, Abuja, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as N400 million recovered from one Aminu Falala.
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When the matter came up on Tuesday, the Kogi state counsel told the court that he had an application dated March 9, 2023, seeking to vacate the order of the court made on February 22.
Mohammed, while moving the application, stated that about the third quarter of 2021, the EFCC approached the court to freeze Kogi State’s N20 billion salary bailout loan that was allegedly hidden in Sterling Bank.
He said that when the Kogi State government called Sterling Bank, the bank denied that such an account existed and that they challenged the freezing order made by Justice Tijjani Ringim, saying that the order was obtained illegally.
Mohammed further stated that the EFCC, instead of apologising, sent a press release stating that the money had been returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
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According to him, the Kogi State Government approached the state high court, presided over by the present Chief Judge Justice Majebi, who granted an order restraining the EFCC from having anything to do with Kogi State until the substantive matter was determined.
He argued that the order of the Kogi State High Court restraining the EFCC from taking any step against the Kogi State Government was still in effect.
“The EFCC, in flagrant disregard of the said order of the Kogi State High Court and her pending appeal at the Court of Appeal Abuja Judicial Division, arrested one Ali Bello Nephew of the Applicant herein, who is an associate of the Kogi State Government, on the 29th of November, 2022.
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“That the EFCC, in flagrant disobedience of the subsisting order of the High Court of Kogi State, interrogated the said Alli Bello and coerced him to oblige them with information pertaining to most of the properties listed in the order of this honourable court made on the 22nd of February, 2023.
“That the said Ali Bello, aggrieved by his illegal arrest and forced interrogation, filed a fundamental rights enforcement application at the High Court of Kogi State, Lokoja Judicial Division, against the EFCC in Suit No. HCL/696″/2022: Ali Bello V. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) & Anor.
“That the High Court of Kogi State in a judgement delivered on the 12th day of January, 2023, granted all the reliefs sought by the Applicant and made an order declaring his arrest, detention, and interrogation illegal and unconstitutional and further ordering a perpetual injunction restraining the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, their agents, servants, privies, or howsoever called, from further arrest, detention, harassment, and intimidation of the said Ali Bello, nephew of the Applicant herein, and The Judgement of the High Court of Kogi State delivered on January 12, 2022, is herewith attached and marked “EXHIBIT D.”
“That the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in continuous disobedience of the extant Orders of Court barring it from inviting or doing anything with respect to the affairs of the Kogi State Government and its officials, brought the instant application for preservation orders of properties they alleged are reasonably suspected to have been derived from unlawful activity stemming from the purported misappropriation of funds belonging to the Kogi State Government.
“That the application filed by the EFCC on February 20, 2023, upon which this Honourable Court made the order dated February 22, 2023, and sought to be vacated herein, is a continuous disobedience of subsisting orders of courts of coordinate jurisdiction that had restrained the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from doing anything with respect to the affairs of the applicant, including the employees, appointees, or associates of Kogi State Government,” he said.
In his response, Oyedepo said that the applicant had brought nothing before the court to convince it to vacate the order.
He urged the court to dismiss the application of the applicant seeking to vacate the order earlier made by the court.
