Sanwo-Olu Drags EFCC To Court Over Planned Prosecution After His Tenure
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, has dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to Court over an alleged plan to arrest and prosecute him after his tenure May 28, 2027.
In a fundamental rights suit filed before the federal high court in Abuja and dated June 6, 2024, Gov Sanwo-Olu raised seven questions and sought 11 reliefs from the court.
NAN reports that Sanwo-Olu asked the court to declare that by the virtue of the provisions of section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, he is “entitled to the right to private and family life as a minimum guarantee encapsulated under the Constitution of the Republic of Nigeria, before, during, and after occupation of public office created by the constitution”.
He said the plan to arrest him is “unconstitutional and a flagrant violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty and freedom of movement as stipulated under sections 35(1) & (4) and 41(1) of the constitution”.
The Governor also wants the court to restrain the EFCC from harassing, intimidating, arresting, detaining, interrogating, or prosecuting him in connection with his tenure as the governor of Lagos state.
The Lagos governor further urged the court to make an order restraining the anti-graft agency from “seizing the properties, the international passport, and travel documents of the plaintiff or freezing the bank accounts of the plaintiff and his family members”.
In an affidavit deposed in support of the suit, Martha Kanu, a lawyer, said Gov Sanwo-Olu told her about the facts of the case during a teleconference meeting.
In her claim, she said that the anti-graft agency is making a surreptitious plan to arrest some of Gov Sanwo-Olu’s aides and family members based on false and spurious allegations of diversion of funds.
Kanu accused EFCC officials of mounting pressure on some of Sanwo-Olu’s aides to make incriminating statements against the governor.
The lawyer further alleged that the agency is also threatening to arrest some contractors handling projects for the state government.
She added that the agency, in collaboration with Sanwo-Olu’s political enemies, is creating spurious corrupt practices to ascribe to the governor’s administration.
When the matter was called for mention on Tuesday, Darlington Ozurumba, counsel to Sanwo-Olu, informed the court that he has replaced the earlier originating summons with a new one.
Ozurumba said the EFCC had been duly served with the new court documents.
However, the Counsel to the EFCC, Hadiza Afegbua said she was yet to see the documents and the proof of service of the processes was not in the court file.
Meanwhile, the Presiding Judge, Joyce Abdulmalik adjourned the matter to November 11 for further mention.i
In a similar development, the Governor has denied suing the EFCC.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State, Mr Lawal Pedro made this public in a statement released by Sanwo-Olu’s spokesperson, Gboyega Akosile, on Tuesday.
“We need to clarify that Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at no time, sued or briefed any legal practitioner to file a suit on his behalf concerning the above subject matter.
“Also, it is disingenuous for the Governor, who enjoys immunity as conferred on him by the Constitution and has almost three years ahead of him, to brief any lawyer on this kind of matter.
“To the best of my knowledge, my inquiry confirmed that the EFCC is not investigating the governor and has never invited him or threatened arrest of any member of his staff, domestic or otherwise.
“We are currently investigating how the case came to be without our knowledge,” he stated.
