A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) lacks the powers to declare anyone wanted without first obtaining a court order.
Justice Othman Musa said in a judgment on Thursday that the EFCC could declare wanted anyone who failed to honour its invitation but the power could only be exercised after it has obtained a court order to that effect.
Justice Musa’s judgment was on a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by the Chief Executive Officer of AITEO Group, Benedict Peters.
In the suit marked: FCT/HC/CV/23/2017, Peter accused EFCC of declaring him wanted on its web site without due process.
The suit had EFCC and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as respondents.
He said the decision of the EFCC to declare him wanted without a pending charge or a valid court order to that effect was a violation of his fundamental rights.
The EFCC said Peters was being investigated over his alleged involvement in the 2015 election bribery.
The court made the declaration while delivering a judgment in a $300million oil fraud case involving Benedict Peters, Chairman and Managing Director of AITEO Energy Resources Limited.
Peters and his company are being investigated by the EFCC in connection with oil scams involving a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke; Benard Otti; Northern Belt Oil and Gas Company Limited and other persons.
In the course of the investigation, the EFCC in a letter dated May 9, 2016, invited Peters for an interview, on May 12, 2016.
On that same day, (May 9, 2016) Peters responded through his counsel Wole Olanipekun, SAN, acknowledging the receipt of the letter, and requested that the interview be adjourned to June, 2016 as the applicant was outside the country on health grounds.
The EFCC granted the request and shifted the interview to June 2, 2016.
On June 1, 2016, the Commission received a letter dated June 1, 2016 from Olanipekun requesting a rescheduling of the same interview to either the last week of August 2016, or early September, 2016 and was obliged.
Peters did not honour the invitation. Instead, several letters were received by the Commission, explaining his absence on medical grounds.
The EFCC got tired of his antics and on August 4, 2016, through its Legal Department at the Lagos zonal office, applied to the Magistrate court in Lagos for a Warrant of Arrest, which was duly granted on August 5, 2016.
Acting on the warrant, the EFCC declared Peters wanted.
Consequently, on December 27, 2017, Peter filed a fundamental right enforcement action, through his lawyer Mike Ozekhome, SAN, against the EFCC, seeking among other reliefs:
“A declaration that the very act of declaring the applicant a wanted person on the official website of the first respondent without any prior order or leave of a court of competent jurisdiction to the effect is unlawful, illegal, wrongful, ultra vires, unconstitutional and constitutes a flagrant violation of the fundamental rights of the applicant to personal liberty, private and family life, freedom of movement and right to not to be subjected to inhumane and treatment as guaranteed under section 34, 35, 37, 41 and 46 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as altered) and Articles 2, 3 (1) & (2), 4, 5, 6, 7 and 12 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement ) Act, 2004”.
In the same application, the applicant alleged that the operatives of the EFCC, on June 1, 2016; June 17, 2016; July 28, 2016, and August 4, 2016; fully armed, invaded the business premises of Peters and his residential premises, shooting, torturing and brutalizing his people.
The Commission responded with a 13 paragraphs counter affidavit, attaching the arrest warrant duly issued by a Magistrate Court.