The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been blasted by
Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja who faulted
the procedures being adopted by the EFCC in arresting and detaining
suspects.
According to The Nation,
the judge said it was wrong for the EFCC to arrest suspects before or
during investigation. He also said the practice where the EFCC procures
remand orders from Magistrates Courts, in cases on which they lacked
jurisdiction was unlawful.
Justice Kolawole also declared unlawful and a violation of the
provision of the law establishing it, where the EFCC freezes a suspect’s
account without an order of court.
“The practice of arrest before trial is not only absurd; it is a
corruption of the due process of law and Constitution. The earlier the
Magistrates Courts and other lower courts realised that they are being
used to subvert the Constitution the better,” the judge said.
He added: “It is as a result of incidents, such as this, that
make the Judiciary to be opened to public ridicule and opprobrium of
issuing black market orders of remand by courts, who ex-facie (on the
face of it), lack the jurisdiction to try the offences being
investigated.
“And these are, in my view quite unfortunate. The statutory
agencies seem to side-track the obligations and rights created by the
Constitution to protect citizens’ fundamental rights from being abused
and violated,” the judge said.
Justice Kolawole spoke yesterday in a judgment he delivered in a
fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Abdulazeez, a serving
senator and son of former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako.
This comes after the Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Justice Ishaq Bello had, on January 12,
2016, faulted the practice where Magistrates grant remand warrant in
relation to cases on which they lacked the jurisdiction to entertain. He
directed magistrates in the FCT Judiciary to desist forthwith from
granting remand orders to investigating agencies in such instances.
Justice Kolawole, in the judgment Wednesday, did not comment on the
constitutionality or otherwise of the provision of Section 293 of the
Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, which allows
magistrates to remand suspects on holding charge for a maximum of two
weeks in situation where the prosecution required time to tidy up its
case.
He said the practice was a “jaundiced interpretation” of
the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Lufadeju vs. Johnson in
SC/247/2001, where the Supreme Court upheld the powers of the
Magistrates Courts to issue remand warrants even where they lacked
jurisdiction to try the offences charged.
Abdulazeez, who is currently standing trial (before another judge
of the Federal High Court, Abuja), with his father and some others on
money laundering related offences, was arrested by the EFCC on February
12, 2015 and released on February 17, 2015. His account, frozen by the
commission since July 14 of 2014, is yet to be released till date.
The applicant argued that his detention for three days without
being taken before any court was a violation of his right to personal
liberty as guaranteed under Section 35 of the Constitution.
Justice Kolawole, who held that EFCC had a justifiable reason to
have arrested the applicant, found that the detention of Abdulazeez by
the EFCC for three days, without taking him before a court of competent
jurisdiction was a breach of the provision under Section 35 of the
Constitution.
He held that the decision by the EFCC to deploy its administrative
powers to freeze the applicant’s bank account since July 14, 2016,
without obtaining a court order to that effect, was a violation of the
provision of the EFCC Establishment Act.
Justice Kolawole noted that the respondent (the EFCC) did not
furnish his court with information of the outcome of its investigation
of the allegations against the applicant, and whether or not charges
have been filed against him.
He said the pendency of the suit before his court was not
sufficient to restrain the EFCC from taking further steps in the case.
He said all the respondent was required to do was to inform the court of
its intention to file charges.
Justice Kolawole awarded N12.5million in exemplary damages against the EFCC and in favour of the applicant.
No comments:
Post a Comment