The hue and cry about EFCC boss’ disregard for court orders

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The hue and cry about EFCC boss’ disregard for court orders

From the inception of human existence, the challenge of how to tame the imperious tendencies of high-powered members of society has been a major discourse at the front burner of legal philosophers and political theoreticians.

In a move to ensure that power was not used to the detriment of members of the society , the instrumentality of law was applied as a primary means of subjecting governmental powers to certain control.

Therefore, the rule of law, considered as a dynamic legal concept which formed the kernel of British democracy and adopted in Nigeria, has become an essential legal instrument to subject the government , its officials and agents under the law.

Unfortunately, in some developing countries like Nigeria, some government officials have been accused of disobeying the rule of law .

For instance, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ,EFCC saddled with the responsibility to investigate all forms of financial crimes such as advance fee fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting, illegal fund transfers, contract scam, as well as the coordination and enforcement of all economic and financial crimes laws, was recently in the news for the wrong reasons.

This followed an accusation of disregard of court orders by the revered agency which ironically, has made several arrests of suspects from both high and middle cadre of the society and charged the same to court.

On February 6, 2023, a Kogi State High Court committed the EFCC Chairman, , Abdulrasheed Bawa , to prison for disobeying Court order.

The court also directed the Inspector-General of Police , Alkali Baba, to effect Bawa’s arrest and remand him in the kuje prison for 14 days until he purged himself of the contempt.

Justice Rukayat Ayoola of the Kogi State High Court, in the ruling granted the application for committal to prison of the EFCC chairman for disobeying a court ruling delivered on November 30, 2022, wherein the EFCC chairman was directed to produce the applicant in the case, Ali Bello.

Bello had dragged Bawa to court for arresting and detaining him illegally, with the court ruling in his favour, only for the EFCC to arraign him for alleged money laundering three days after the ruling.

The EFCC’s applications for setting aside a stay of execution of the ruling were refused for want of merit.

The Court had, in Form 49, Order IX, Rule 13, marked: “HCL/697M/2022” and titled: ‘Notice to show cause why order of committal should not be made,’ asked the EFCC Chairman to appear before it on January 18, 2022 to explain why he should not be jailed for flouting the order given on December 12, 2022 in a case filed by Ali Bello against EFCC and Bawa, as the 1st and 2nd respondents, respectively.

The court also ordered that the EFCC and Bawa be served the motion of notice together with Form 49 by substituted means.

The court had declared the arrest and detention of the applicant in the face of a subsisting Court order made by a Court of competent jurisdiction and without a warrant of arrest “or being informed of the offence for which he was arrested” as unlawful, unconstitutional, and in contravention of the personal liberty and dignity of human person guaranteed under Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

Also, it ordered the respondents to tender an apology to the applicant in a national newspaper and awarded N10 million compensation for him.

The Form 49, issued on December 15, 2022, and addressed to Bawa read, “Take notice that the Applicant will on the 18th day of January, 2023 at the hour of 9 o’clock in the forenoon or so soon thereafter, apply to this Court for an order for your committal to prison for having disobeyed the order of this Court made on 12th day of December, 2022 that:

“That arrest and detention of the Applicant on the 29th November, 2022 by the 1st and 2nd Respondents in the face of a subsisting Court Order made by a Court of competent jurisdiction and without a warrant of arrest or being informed of the offence for which he was arrested is unlawful, unconstitutional and contravenes the Applicant’s right to personal liberty and dignity of human person guaranteed under Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Articles 5 and 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

“Perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents, their agents, servants, privies, or however called from further arrest, detention, harassment and intimidation of the Applicant .

“An order directing the Respondents to tender an apology to the Applicant in any of the National Daily having nationwide coverage for the illegal detention and harassment of the Applicant.

In another instance, An Abuja High Court sitting at Maitama, had on November 9,2022, ordered that Bawa be remanded in prison custody, following alleged disobedience to a valid court order

The court, in a ruling delivered by Justice Chizoba Oji, found the EFCC boss guilty of contempt of court, after it was disclosed that he declined to return a Range Rover Sport (Super Charge) vehicle valued at N40 Million, which the anti-graft agency seized from a former Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, AVM, Rufus Adeniyi Ojuawo.

Justice Orji had in an order she made on November 21, 2018, ordered the commission to return the exotic vehicle to AVM Ojuawo, who was facing trial.

The former NAF Director of Operations was in 2016, docked before trial Justice Muawiyah Baba Idris of the High Court of the FCT at Nyanya for allegedly receiving N40m and a Range Rover Sport, from one Hima Aboubakar of Societe D’Equipment Internationaux Nigeria Limited.

He was arraigned on a two-count criminal charge.

Following a separate proceeding the defendant initiated against the commission, the high court, in 2018, ordered that the seized vehicle be returned to him.

However, four years after the order was made, counsel to the defendant, Mr. R.N. Ojabo, drew attention of the court to the fact that EFCC had yet to comply with it.

Irked by the development, Justice Orji held that ,” having continued wilfully in disobedience to the order of this court, he should be committed to Kuje Prisons for his disobedience, and continued disobedience of the said order of court made on November 21, 2018, until he purges himself of the contempt”.

CSO protest

About 120 front-line Anti-corruption Civil Society Organisations, kicked against the Commission’s defiance to court order by staging a week-long protest against what they described as “Politicisation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Disobedience of Court Orders and Infringement on Human Rights of Nigerians”.

The ‘ Bawa Must Go’ protest was greeted by a large followers both on social and conventional media, who gave the Inspector-General of Police a seven-day ultimatum to effect the Court order that committed Bawa to prison for contempt.

Spokesperson for the Transparency and Accountability Group, Ayodeji Ologun, insisted that the EFCC boss could not appeal the contempt ruling without first obeying the order, saying the Nigerian authorities were dangerously toeing the path of anarchy with the incessant disobedience of court orders, especially by an agency set up to stamp out corruption.

“He said : “ Bawa has made the EFCC an institution known for brazenly disobeying court orders in such a manner that does not only undermine the institutions of Nigeria’s democracy but also indicates a contradiction to the anti-corruption agenda of Buhari.“EFCC’s Gestapo-style regime of disobeying court orders must stop. Nigeria is not a banana republic. All must resist attempts by institutions of state to ridicule the country and make it seem like a lawless fiefdom

“The commission seems only to act with gusto against perceived political enemies of some powerful political forces in the country rather than being neutral and professional.

“For instance, the Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly was bundled in Gestapo-style to Abuja on corruption allegations, while the commission left several similar petitions elsewhere untouched. Where are justice, impartiality, and professionalism?

On his part, spokesperson for the Coalition of Anti-corruption Organisations, Olufemi Lawson, said, “Go to the EFCC office today, there won’t be parking space. Most of them, who are police officers, drive different types of exotic cars that their colleagues who don’t work with EFCC cannot afford

“As frontline Anti-corruption activists, we wish to restate our uncompromising demand for President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately relieve Mr Bawa of the position of the Chairman of the EFCC. Mr Bawa has lost the moral capacity to continually preside over such an important law enforcement agency, having become a signpost for disobedience to the rule of law, particularly express orders of our courts.”

Lawson, who is also the Executive Director, Centre for Public Accountability, added, “this is just the first phase. We will be submitting petitions to relevant international agencies and embassies demanding sanctions against Bawa until he becomes law-abiding. We can’t allow our Judiciary be rubbished by anyone”

Also speaking, Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Center , RULAAC Okechukwu Nwanguma, said “Any security agency set up by law to enforce laws must subject the conduct and actions of its operatives to the law. There are guidelines, code of conduct and safeguards put in place to regulate the exercise of powers by agencies with law enforcement mandates.

“Any deviations from the law in exercise of law enforcement powers can have consequences both for the individual operatives and the agency they represent. Non conformity with the law is lawlessness and lawlessness destroys the legitimacy of any law enforcement organisation.”

Not done, Olalekan Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN said: “The rule of law is a multifaceted concept, one of the features is respect for the law, supremacy of the law and obedience to court judgements and orders. For every form of disobedience to a judgement of court is an invitation to anarchy.

” Government agencies must lead by example, they must show the way. I am not in a position but I want to believe that before the high court of Kogi state presided over by Hon. Justice Ayoola must have committed the EFCC chairman to prison, my lord must have been satisfied that the condition precedent, though they committed an order, have been satisfied.

“They must accord that order a presumption of irregularities until the contrary is proved. It is therefore very unfortunate if it is true that the EFCC deliberately disobeyed orders from the Kogi state high court. If a government agency does that, what do you expect the citizens to do?

“If this thing does not abate and it continues, nobody will feel inclined to obey the order of court in Nigeria, so it is not proper for the government to engage in any act of disobedience. If a court makes an order against you and you are not satisfied, appeal against that order.

“That was what EFCC did in a criminal case we conducted against them, the judge asked them to pay N124 Million to my client but they appealed. I must confess to you, the chairman of the EFCC is a gentleman and I have known him for so many years, he strikes me as a law abiding citizen of this country. I want to believe that something went wrong, perhaps, the order wasn’t brought to his attention. He is a young man and we are all proud of him.”

Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Abiodun Owonikoko, who collaborated the view of his colleague, described it as a “ carry -over from the era of military rule when the authority of government is not subject to any realistic control or check by the judicial arm that even when the court decided to assert itself, the military had their way to overthrown judgement of court but the moment we opted for constitutional democracy in 1999 under which it was inserted in section 1 that the constitution shall be supreme and if any other law or authority shall yield to the contrary, the constitution shall prevail”.

EFCC’s Reaction

However, in its reaction to the call of Bawa’s sack by the Civil Society Organizations, the EFCC accused desperate politicians of being behind the plot to remove its chairman.

It, therefore, urged Nigerians to ignore the street protests by those it described as an ‘amorphous group’ bankrolled by those under investigation with a view to inciting the public and discrediting the Commission.

Briefing journalists recently in Abuja, the Commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said, “We wish to raise the alarm about the activities of an amorphous group of so-called Civil Society Organizations who have recently embarked on a campaign to discredit the person of the Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa and incite the public against the Commission

“The group, through press conferences and staged street protests, have been calling for the sack of the EFCC Chairman for alleged disobedience of court orders. They claim they are motivated by the need to strengthen the fight against corruption.

“Contrary to these claims, the EFCC wishes to alert the public that this group have no interest in the fight against corruption and their allusion to disobedience of court orders by the EFCC chairman is an alibi to manipulate facts around judicial pronouncements and processes to pitch the public against the Commission.

“Information available to the Commission indicates that the group is sponsored by persons under investigation by the Commission and have been mobilised and mandated by their paymaster to embarrass the person of the chairman through choreographed street protests across the country until he is removed from office.

“It is significant that this group found its voice after the EFCC launched an investigation into the mindless footing of the treasury of one of the states”.

Explaining the circumstances of the two orders of committal against the EFCC Chairman , Wilson, said: ” the first order by an FCT High Court on November 8, 2022, was issued over the failure to comply with a November 21, 2018 order of the court directing the Commission to return seized assets comprising a Range Rover SUV and the sum of N40,000,000,00 to the applicant.

“The said order of the FCT High Court was given three years before Abdulrasheed Bawa became EFCC Chairman. Also, the contempt process is quasi-criminal in nature and must be served on the person involved. In this case, Bawa as chairman of the EFCC was neither served Form 48 nor Form 49.

“Despite this fact, the Executive Chairman, upon being made aware of the said order of November 21, 2018, had released the Range Rover in question to the Applicant on the 27th of June, 2022 and had approved the process of the release of the remaining N40 million before the committal order was issued.

“His action does not show contempt for the court or the judiciary which he holds in great esteem.

“In the case of the last order by Justice RO. Ayoola of the Kogi State High Court, the processes are still ongoing so I am constrained to make categorical statements.

“The Commission believes it was denied a fair hearing as the alleged infringement of the rights of the applicant happened in Abuja which is outside the jurisdiction of the Kogi High court.

“As a law-abiding institution, EFCC, approached the appellate court, for a stay of execution. This is a valid and lawful remedy law and does not evoke any aura of impunity or disregard for the judiciary.

“It is therefore evident that those claiming that Bawa has a penchant for booting court orders are simply up to mischief, which is clearly the central theme of the plot by the so-called civil society group.”