The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has filed a motion at the Court of Appeal to stop the execution of judgment of the Kogi High Court, which ordered the committal of its Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to prison over contempt of Court.
Justice R.O. Ayoola of the Kogi State High Court had last Monday, asked the Inspector General of Police to arrest the EFCC Chairman and remand him in Kuje prison, Abuja, for the next 14 days until he purges himself of the contempt.
The judge gave the order while granting an application for committal to prison of the EFCC Chairman for disobeying a court ruling delivered on November 30, 2022, wherein he was directed to produce an applicant, Ali Bello, in court.
Bello had dragged Bawa to court over alleged illegal arrest and detention. He noted that even after the court ruled in his favour, the EFCC refused to release him, but instead, went ahead to arraign him on charges of money laundering three days after the ruling.
The Court had also refused EFCC’s applications to set aside the stay of execution of the ruling for want of merit.
But in a motion filed before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, the EFCC asked for an interlocutory injunction to stop the arrest of Bawa pending the final hearing and determination of the appeal.
In asking the appellate court to dismiss the order to arrest Bawa, the anti-graft agency said the Kogi State High Court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the matter as the alleged infringement of the respondent’s fundamental human rights occurred in Abuja, and no element of it took place in Lokoja.
Therefore, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to proceed to hear the suit, a fact that the EFCC said was duly raised before the Lokoja court.
The EFCC further argued that the Appellant had applied to the trial court for compilation and transmission of the record of appeal, but at the time of filing the motion, the file of the case was yet to be released to enable transmission of the record to the registry of the Appellate Court
The deponent said rather than allow the record of the appeal to be transmitted, the trial court proceed to cite the Appellant on 6th February for contempt
The deponent further argued that “If the execution/enforcement of the judgment of the 12th of December 2023 and the pronouncement of the trial Court of 6th of February 2023, is not stayed, it will jeopardize the Appellants/Applicants’ constitutional right of appeal and exercise of his statutory functions.”
