We are not forcing Azibaola to implicate Jonathan – EFCC

Ramon Oladimeji

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has urged Justice Mojisola Olatoregun-Ishola of a Federal High Court in Lagos to dismiss a suit filed against it by a cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Robert Azibaola.

Contrary to Azibaola’s claim in his suit, the EFCC claimed that it was not detaining the ex-President’s cousin for the purpose of forcing him to implicate the former President.

It maintained that Azibaola’s detention was for the purpose of investigating an alleged fraud of $40m against him.

The EFCC also claimed to have given Azibaola an administrative bail, saying he was the one who had failed to meet the conditions.

It urged the court to dismiss the suit in the interest of justice, claiming that letting Azibaola go would undermine its ongoing investigations.

The EFCC said this in a counter-affidavit deposed to by one of its investigators, Mohammed Hassan, in opposition to Azibaola’s fundamental rights enforcement action.

While urging the court to refuse Azibaola’s prayers, Hassan claimed that he filed the suit to frustrate investigations against him so that he could evade prosecution.

“An application for the enforcement of fundamental rights does not serve as a defence or shield from criminal investigation,” Hassan said, adding that the EFCC had perfected plans to charge Azibaola to court based on its findings.

“This suit is frivolous, time-wasting, an abuse of court processes and should be dismissed with cost,” Hassan said.

In the suit filed through his lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Azibaola alleged that the EFCC had been detaining him unlawfully since March 23 when he voluntarily honoured an invitation by the anti-graft agency.
 
He claimed that he is being persecuted based on his blood relation with ex-President Jonathan, claiming that the EFFC continued to detain him so that he would implicate Jonathan.
 
He accused the EFCC of having perfected the plan to keep transferring him from state to state in order to keep renewing the remand warrant to ensure that he was perpetually kept in detention.
 
But Adegboruwa argued that any attempt to make his client indict the ex-President was a violation of Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, “which has outlawed the practice of arresting a citizen as ransom for the alleged offence of another citizen.”

He argued that the EFCC could not rely on sections 293 and 294 of the ACJA to continue to detain Azibaola.

The lawyer claimed that those sections of the law were designed for criminal offences such as murder, armed robbery, kidnapping and treasonable felony, which attract capital punishment and for which the  police would need time to await a legal advice from the office of the Attorney-General.
 
He urged the court to order the EFCC to immediately charge him to court or release him if it was not ready to do so.

from Punch Newspapers http://ift.tt/1U2lvZz