Counsel to Barrister Azibaola Roberts, Managing Director of One-Plus<\/p>\n
Holdings Limited, who has been in the custody of Economic and Financial
\nCrimes Commission (EFCC)\u00a0 for close to a month, has written the
\nAttorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar
\nMalami (SAN), threatening to commence committal proceedings against the
\nEFCC chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.<\/p>\n
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory presided over by Justice
\nOlasunbo Goodluck had on April 7th, 2016 after listening to counsel to
\nRoberts, Chief Chris Uche SAN and Gordy Uche,SAN\u00a0 ordered the Commission
\nto immediately release\u00fd the MD of One-Plus Holdings and his Executive
\nDirector (Projects), Atukpa Dakoru from detention.<\/p>\n
In the letter dated 18th March, 2016, the senior lawyer regretted that in
\nspite of being served with the two orders of the court, EFCC has refused
\nto obey any of the orders, and has continued to hold his client defiance
\nof the court.<\/p>\n
Lamented Uche,”This is regrettable, considering the fact that the
\ngovernment is one that has stated its commitment to respect for the rule
\nof law and has pledged to prosecute the war against corruption within\u00fd the
\nambit of the rule of law,\u201d stressing, \u201cit must also be remembered that it
\nis before the same courts of this country that your Commission arraigns
\nand will arraign suspects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continued the senior lawyer, “We therefore request that you release our
\nclients forthwith as ordered by the court,\u201d threatening that \u201cwe shall be
\ncompelled to commence committal proceedings before the court if the
\ncourt’s order is not complied with in line with your Commission’s motto
\nthat no one is above the law” he declared.<\/p>\n
It would be recalled that the EFCC had on March 23, arrested Robert over
\nalleged diversion $40 million through One-Plus Holdings, a sister company
\nof Kakatar Construction and Engineering Company Limited, meant for
\nsecuring oil pipelines. The payment was said to have been made by the
\ndetained former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
\nFrustrated by his prolonged detention, Robert through his lawyer\u00fd Uche
\n(SAN), approached the court for the enforcement of his fundamental
\nrights.<\/p>\n
In a motion ex-parte dated and filed on April 5 and brought pursuant
\nto Order 5 Rules 3 and 4 of the fundamental Rights (Enforcement
\nProcedure) Rules 2009, Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution (as
\namended), Uche (SAN) prayed the court to make \u201can order granting his
\nclient an interim bail pending his arraignment before a court of law
\nby the respondent (EFCC) or pending the determination of the
\nsubstantive motion in this suit.\u201d
\nThe senior lawyer had submitted that the court was clothed with jurisdiction
\nto grant the applicant bail having regard to Order 4 Rule 3 and 4 of
\nthe Fundamental Rights Enforcement Rules of 2009 as well as Section
\n168 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 and
\nSection 35 (5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
\nNigeria.
\nIn the suit marked: FCT\/CV\/1370\/2016, Uche drew the court\u2019s attention
\nto the physical, mental and psychological torture his client had been
\nsubjected to in an underground cell of the EFCC since March 23 when he
\nwas arrested, and urged the court to grant his client\u2019s request.
\nDelivering a ruling on the application, the trial judge,
\nJustice Goodluck Olasunbor held that Robert\u2019s detention by the EFCC
\nfor over two weeks was unconstitutional.
\nJustice Goodluck said that the applicant had disclosed sufficient
\n\u00fdevidence before the court to warrant the granting of his relief.
\nRelying on the extant provisions of the constitution, the judge averred
\nthat under section 35 (5) of the said provision, the
\nconstitution provides that a person who is under arrest or detention
\nshall be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time.
\nSection 35 subsection 5, 1 defines reasonable time as follows:
\n\u201cIn the case of an arrest or detention in any case where there is a
\ncourt of competent jurisdiction within the radius of 40 kilometres
\nwithin (a) period of one day and (b) in any other case a period of two
\ndays or such longer period as in the circumstance may be considered by
\nthe court to be reasonable.\u201d
\nJustice Goodluck held: \u201cflowing from the above provisions, and
\napplying the intentions of the authors of our revered constitution in
\nthe instant scenario, the detention of the applicant for a duration of
\n15 days as at today (Thursday, April 7), is far in excess of the
\nconstitutionally provided time for detaining a citizen without his
\narrest or arraignment in a law court.
\n\u201cThis court has carefully examined Order 4 Rule 3 and 4 of the
\nFundamental Rights Fundamental Procedure Rules 2009, there it empowers
\nthe court to entertain an ex-parte application for the prevention of
\nlife or liberty of a Nigerian Citizen where exceptional hardship may
\nbe occasioned before the service of the motion on notice.
\n\u201cApplying the foregoing provisions as a litmus test to the facts and
\ncircumstances of this case, I am of the view and so hold that this
\nex-parte application is competent and contemplated by the laws of our
\nland. The applicant by this application disclosed that he has been in
\ndetention since 23 March, 2016 in an underground cell. This in this
\ncourt\u2019s view amounts to a deprivation of his movement and his freedom
\ncontrary to the time frame stipulated in the 1999 constitution. I am
\nof the view that the applicant has disclosed exceptional reason why
\nthis application should be granted. More importantly, order 4 rule 4
\n(1)\u00a0 of the fundamental rights enforcement procedural rules of 2009
\nempowers this court to grant bail or order the release of the
\napplicant forthwith from detention pending the determination of the
\nmotion on notice.
\n\u201cSimilarly, lending credence the powers of this court to allow an
\ninterlocutory respite to the applicant in Section 168 of the ACJA
\n2015, which provides that \u201ca judge of a High Court may direct that (a)
\nbail conditions required by a magistrate court or police officer be
\nreviewed be it a defendant in custody in a state of FCT be admitted to
\nbail.
\n\u201cMy summation from a community reading of the foregoing statutes, the
\ncourt is empowered to grant bail or order the release of the applicant
\npending the determination of the motion on notice. In the light of the
\nforegoing considerations, this court will be exercising its powers
\njudiciously and judicially by allowing this application.
\n\u201cAccordingly, this application succeeds. The applicant is hereby
\nadmitted to bail pending his arraignment before a court of law or
\npending the determination of the substantive motion on notice in this
\nsuit,\u201d the judge said.
\nShe, however said the applicant\u2019s bail shall be with two sureties. Each
\nsurety shall be a serving or retired Director in any of the federal
\ngovernment ministries or parastatal and must be resident within the
\nfederal capital territory. The applicant shall deposit his
\ninternational passport to the Chief Registrar of this Court.
\nIn the same vein, the court ordered the EFCC to release Robert\u2019s
\ncolleague and Executive Director of Kakatar Construction and
\nEngineering Company Limited, Mr. Dakoru Atukpa who had also been in
\ndetention for the same period.<\/p>\n
However, inspite of the fact that the bail conditions have been fulfilled
\nby the applicants, the EFCC has continued to detain them in their facility
\nprompting the applicants to through the Counsel file Form 48 which is
\nconsequences of the disobedience of Court orders while they are expected
\nto file committal proceedings against the EFCC chairman today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Counsel to Barrister Azibaola Roberts, Managing Director of One-Plus Holdings Limited, who has been in the custody of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)\u00a0 for close to a month, has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n