… Applicant seeks his committal to Prison
A
contempt charge has been filed against the acting Chairman of the
Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu seeking to
commit him to prison by an Abuja High Court over his alleged
disobedience to court order.
The contempt charge
contained on Form 49 of the Abuja High Court on the EFCC boss is asking
him to show cause why he should not be committed to prison.
The
contempt charge followed the refusal of the EFCC to obey orders issued
by Justice Peter Affen of the Abuja High Court in respect of the
unlawful arrest and detention of an Austrian security expert, Mr.
Wolgang Reinl in which the EFCC was found culpable.
Among
others, Justice Affen has ordered EFCC to immediately release the
International Passport, Cheque Books, Cell-phones and other properties
of the foreign businessman unlawful confiscated from him since December
2015 when his Abuja house was illegally invaded and ransacked by the
operatives of the anti-graft agency.
The judge
also ordered EFCC to pay the security expert a sum of N10m as
compensatory damages for his unlawful detention from December 28, 2015
to February 5, 2016, a period of over five weeks.
The
contempt charge addressed to EFCC boss read in part: “Take notice that
the applicant will apply to this court for an order for your committal
to prison for having disobey the order of this court as made by
honourable Justice Peter Affen of the FCT High Court in Abuja on April
20, 2016 requiring you to release forthwith the applicant international
passport seized or confiscated in the wake of his arrest and detention
and delist him from your watchlist or No-Fly list.
“And
also for your failure to obey the order of the court requiring you to
pay the applicant the sum of N10m as compensatory damages for the
violation of his fundamental rights to dignity of human person and
personal liberty.”
It
would be recalled that the FCT Abuja High Court had ordered EFCC to pay
a sum of N10m damages to the security expert over his unlawful
detention and seizure of his international Passport by the anti-graft
agency.
The
court also barred the EFCC from arresting, re-arresting, detaining or
embarking on further seizure of the international passport of the
plaintiff who is an Austrian Security consultant.
The
court held that the detention of the plaintiff at the EFCC custody in
Abuja for over a month was unlawful, unconstitutional and constituted a
gross violation of the plaintiff fundamental right to dignity as
enshrined in Section 34 and 35 of the 1999 Constitution.
However,
at the time of this report, the EFCC had yet to comply with the
judgement prompting the applicant through his lawyer Mr. Mazi Afam
Osigwe to file the contempt charge against the EFCC boss for his
committal to prison for violation of a lawful court order.
PRNigeria
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