Monday Ubani, immediate past second vice president of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been using court orders to extend detention of citizens in its cell, complicate cases by unprofessional handling.
He cited the issues of the former boss of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and his (Ubani) harrowing experiences in EFCC custody as cases in point.
The activist said it was sad that the government agency which was empowered by the constitution had repeatedly flouted court orders and treated Nigerian laws with disdain.
He said EFCC action must have forced the former NSITF chief, Ngozi Olojeme, who he assisted to bring back to the country to answer to charges of corruption against her, to leave the country. He said that the same agency through carelessness and unprofessionalism forced her to leave the country. He said the same EFCC arrested and detained him unjustly for weeks without telling him the reason for his detention and even flouting the court order requesting his release.
The former chairman of Ikeja branch of NBA said, “I convinced the woman to come back and defend herself in court and she listened to me, came back to the country. I submitted her voluntarily to EFCC. She was interviewed, after which she was detained and was in hospital for 14 days, under guard. Remember also that before she came back she had multiple surgeries and within that 14 days her health was deteriorating and I was under tremendous pressure to get her out on bail, which compelled me to go to court against EFCC, trying to enforce her fundamental human right.
“It was at that point that we got to know that they got court order to detain her for 14 days. It is another case that I would address nationally. It is issue of agencies using the court to extend detention of citizens in EFCC cells. It is something that we would need to tackle, because of possibility of abuse. When we discovered she was being detained under a court order we had to press for her release. I considered it was administrative bail, and I reasoned that once she was charged to court at that point I would be excused. Any time she had a scheduled appointment I would travel all the way to Abuja from Lagos to take her to EFCC. I discovered that EFCC was no more interested in charging her to court; rather they were more concerned about her property,” he said.
He said when EFCC tried to arrest the woman under another civil case, condoned her street and ready to take her to Enugu by force under a civil case that was already in court and different from the one for which she was brought back to the country. He said that the woman had to slip out of the country and when he tried to use the Interpol to get her back, even to the point of using red alert. He said he succeeded in getting her under red alert in France and he went to EFCC to inform them. He noted that he was arrested at that point, without any reason as to the offence he had committed.
Ubani stated, “NBA spoke openly against it, Eastern Bar Forum (EBA), Igbo lawyers all over the federation and other respected groups and nongovernmental organization (NGO), Human Rights organizations, individuals with voice, used social media to campaign for my release. I was finally released and in spite of that Ibrahim Magu was still investigating me, claiming that the woman paid me millions. I did not know the woman when she was in public office. I have become more investigated as a private person than public officers. I have been asked to declare all my assets. They claimed that I had no right to bail her that NBA should discipline me, put me in detention. Is EFCC now NBA that should discipline me by putting me in detention?” he said.
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