Stop persecution of Yahaya Bello, Legal Activist tells EFCC

A legal activist and constitutional lawyer, Wilfred Molokun, has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to refrain forthwith from its inglorious media trial of the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, over an attempt to arraign him in court.

He said it is absurd for an agency charged with the responsibility of enforcing all economic and financial crimes laws to throw overboard the rule of law in its desperation to persecute, prosecute, and humiliate a former governor.

Molokun, a legal practitioner with over three decades of practice, made the call while fielding questions on the judgement of the Kogi State High Court delivered on April 17, 2024, by Justice Isa Jamil Abdullahi, who granted an order restraining the EFCC “from continuing to harass, threaten to arrest or detain” Bello based on the criminal charges now pending before the federal high court in Abuja.

Molokun said decorum and decency should be the order of the day, stressing that the EFCC should allow the trial court judge of the Federal High Court who is seized of the matter to make a ruling on the Bello application seeking to vacate the warrant of arrest, essentially as the court has now been adequately addressed by both parties on the issues.

According to him, the rule of law should reign supreme in the conduct of citizens, including corporate bodies like the EFCC.

The Federal High Court had fixed May 10 for a ruling on Yahaya Bello’s application seeking to vacate the arrest warrant made on April 17, 2024.

Bello’s application was argued on April 23, 2024, before Justice Emeka Nwite by Adeola Adedipe (SAN), while Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), who represented the EFCC, vehemently opposed it.

In his argument, Adedipe pointed out the need for the court to set aside the arrest warrant, adding that the arrest warrant order, having been made before the charge, ought to be set aside suo motu (on its own accord, without any request by the parties involved).

The senior lawyer further argued that contrary to Pinheiro’s submission that the ex-governor must be in court first before any application could be entertained as a criminal case, the anti-graft agency had made an application on April 18 after the arrest warrant was issued to the EFCC on April 17 and that the court granted it.

According to Adedipe, the complainant made an application for substituted service on the 18th day of April after the arrest warrant had been issued on the 17th day of April, and my noble lord granted it.

The defendant’s counsel said, “The court must satisfy itself that the defendant (Bello) will not be prejudiced in fairness if the warrant of arrest continues to hang on his neck, having been made before service of the charge contrary to Section 394 of ACJA.”

ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE 

• ‘I’m in league of my own,’ Flavour reacts amidst Afrobeats industry beef

• May Day: Remi Tinubu felicitates Nigerian workers

• Fuel scarcity: Reps ask security agencies to clamp down on hoarders

• I’m committed to improving workers’ welfare — Tinubu

• VIDEO: Nigerians react to fuel scarcity

• Shettima returns to Nigeria, meets US Secretary, Campbell