Court orders EFCC to defreeze Fayose’s account •Sets aside another high court order •EFCC to appeal

THE Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately remove the embargo placed on two personal accounts of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo, in his judgment in the suit brought before his court by Fayose, through his counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, held that the EFCC erred by freezing the accounts, because the action was in breach of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Justice Taiwo, in his judgment, also set aside a ruling of another federal high court sitting in Lagos, which the EFCC had obtained as a ground for the action, saying the order had infringed on the right of the applicant.

Justice Taiwo said the rights of the governor had been unconstitutionally infringed upon, considering the circumstance of his office.

He declared that apart from the immunity which Fayose currently enjoys as a sitting governor under Section 308 of the Constitution, it was wrong for the EFCC to have gone ahead to seize his two accounts in perpetuity without first investigating him or making him a party in the Lagos matter.

The judge also held that it was wrong for the EFCC to have frozen the governor’s accounts via a letter to Zenith Bank (second respondents in the matter), which he said did not enjoy any mandate from the governor, saying Fayose ought to have first been investigated and brought into the picture.

He described Fayose as “a genuinely deprived person who rushed to the court to seek constitutional protection.”

According to the judge, “the complainant is entitled to be heard before his property or money can be seized. Doing otherwise will amount to denying him fair hearing and constitutional rights.”

Justice Taiwo, however refused to grant a perpetual injunction sought by Fayose, to restrain the EFCC or its agents from further tampering with his property and another relief he sought in which he asked for payment of N5 billion as exemplary damages.

“This court will not shield any person from due investigation. Since the police cannot be stopped from investigating a crime, same goes for the first respondent (EFCC), so as not to whittle down its functions,” he said.

EFCC lead counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, was absent in court but Fayose’s lead counsel, Ozekhome, in his reaction, described the judgment as one that would checkmate the agency against years of brazen arbitrariness and excesses.

Ozekhome said the judge, by the judge, by the judgment, “laid to rest all the abracadabra of the EFCC in illegally, wrongfully, unlawfully and unconstitutionally going about on a rampage freezing Nigeria citizens’ accounts with reckless abandon.”

Ozekhome added that Justice Taiwo had also “restored the hope of Nigerians in the judiciary as the last hope of the common man and woman and the guardian sentinel of the civil rights, liberties and freedoms of Nigerians.”

Two personal accounts at Zenith Bank, belonging to Fayose, were frozen on June 21, 2016 by the EFCC, on allegations that the money in the accounts were allegedly proceeds of crime.

The governor took the agency and the bank to court on June 26, 2016 and asked the court to order the unfreezing of his accounts and pay him damages.

Reacting, the EFCC, said it would appeal the judgment by Justice Taiwo.

According to a statement by the Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, the commission was awaiting the certified copy of the ruling, adding that it was important to point out that the order contradicted another order by Justice M. B. Idris of the Federal High Court, Lagos, which gave the commission the nod to freeze the account, pending the conclusion of investigation.