Ozekhome talks tough, says EFCC cannot intimidate him from representing Fayose

CHIEF Mike Ozekhome (SAN) representing Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and his aide said on Tuesday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) cannot intimidate him from defending the Governor in court.

Ozekhome in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja was reacting to online publications with numerous calls from Nigerians, that his account containing N75 million domiciled with GTBank Plc, has been temporarily frozen, allegedly based on an ex-parte order obtained by the anti-graft agency from Justice Abdulazeez Anka of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The senior counsel said the publication alleged that the said sum of N75 million is “suspected” to be the proceeds of crime or from money laundering. According to him, “This is an invidious lie from the pit of hell.

He said the N75 million was paid into his account by his client, Governor Fayose, as part payment of professional fees for the numerous cases his chambers is currently handling for him (in his personal capacity) and his aides across the country.

He said the money is neither “suspected proceeds of crime” nor of money laundering, adding that Justice Taiwo O Taiwo, of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti had, on December 13, 2016, ordered the EFCC to defreeze two accounts belonging to Governor Fayose and domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, which the anti-graft agency had, illegally and  unconstitutionally frozen.

He said he represented Fayose in the matter, which the court described the action of the EFCC as “illegal, wrongful, unconstitutional and unlawful.”

He said, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the same lawyer who was said to have obtained the ex-parte order blocking his account from Justice Anka represented the EFCC in the case he won for the Governor before the Ado Ekiti division of the Federal High Court.

In his words, “After the accounts were de-frozen by the judgment of the court, I urged Governor Fayose to make part payment of N100 million for the numerous cases I am handling for him and his aides across Nigeria, but which he did not have funds to pay for. He then transferred, with the cooperation of Zenith Bank Plc, the second Defendant in the suit, the sum of N75 million as part payment of my professional fees.

“I have since utilised the funds. It is sickening and inconceivable that money legitimately and legally paid by a client to his solicitor from an unencumbered account wholly and totally de-frozen and unblocked by the judgment of a competent court of law can be termed “suspected proceeds of crime or money laundering.” I am a practising lawyer, not a government employee, contractor or a business man,” he said.

“It is so shameful and disgusting when we make ourselves a laughing stock before international circles through brazen unconstitutional acts by publicly funded government institutions,  just to silent all critical voices of reason and plurality of ideas. I shall take immediate legal steps to defreeze the account, in the event that the EFCC does not immediately voluntarily vacate the said order,” Ozekhome pointed out.