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FROZEN BANK ACCOUNTS: Again, Fayose defeats EFCC

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FROZEN BANK ACCOUNTS: Again, Fayose defeats EFCC

An Appeal Court sitting in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday sacked the application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for an injunction restraining the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose from operating his accounts in Zenith Bank Plc.

The court which described EFCC’s application as lacking in merit, added that the commission “did not come with clean hands on the application for injunction it filed because it suppressed material facts.

It said for example, that a similar application the EFCC filed was earlier refused by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti.”

Counsel to Governor Fayose, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had contended that the entire application filed by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, was unmeritorious.

On December 13, 2016, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti had ordered the EFCC to immediately unfreeze the accounts of Governor Fayose.

The EFCC however appealed the judgment of the Federal High Court and sought an injunction, restraining the governor from operating the accounts pending the determination of the appeal.

But delivering judgment in the matter, the Appeal Court in a unanimous ruling delivered by Justice Fatima Omoro Akinbami, accused the EFCC of not attaching notice of appeal and the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti judgment of December 13, 2016, which ordered the anti-graft agency to unfreeze the governor’s account that the EFCC appealed against.

Read also: Court orders ex-gov Suswam remanded in Kuje Prison

It further said that the EFCC also did not attach the “damning intelligent report, the commission said it received concerning money allegedly paid into Fayose’s account by Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.

It held, “Fayose, being a sitting governor covered with immunity under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution as admitted by EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, has been shown to have been tried nor found guilty by any court of law such as to tagged his bank accounts as proceeds of crime.”

The court described EFCC’s claim on the receipt of an intelligent report concerning money purportedly paid into Governor Fayose’s account by Senator Musiliu Obanikoro as mere speculation, saying; “the court does not embark on speculation.”

The appeal court also held that since the EFCC had admitted that N80 million had already been withdrawn from the accounts, saying that Chief Ozekhome was right to say that the cat had already been completed and an injunction cannot be granted for act already completed.

The judgment has added to the number of cases the EFCC, which has been accused of not doing a thorough job in its prosecution of anti-corruption cases, has lost.

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