A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has barred the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, from declaring wanted, a former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina.
Maina, who has been on the run, is wanted by the anti-graft agency over alleged diversion of pension funds.
It would be recalled that the EFCC had declared him wanted after Maina was reinstated into the civil under questionable circumstances in 2017.
Maina was dismissed from the civil service by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013.
The order of the Federal High Court has, however, brought to light that there was no court order backing the action of the EFCC.
Presiding judge, Justice Folashade Giwa-Ogunbanjo in the judgment delivered on January 31, 2019, held that the EFCC could not declare Maina wanted without first obtaining a court order.
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The judge held that the EFCC could not exercise its powers under sections 1(2)(c), 6, 7, 13 of the EFCC Act without recourse to court.
Maina filed the suit on September 5, 2018 to challenge the action of the EFCC.
A certified true copy of her judgment reads in part: “The plaintiff’s second prayer is a declaration that without recourse to any safeguard in sections 35, 37, 41 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), including a judicial intervention, order of court pursuant to sections 1(1), 8(1) and 42(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, the 1st defendant cannot lawfully exercise its discretion, powers and or functions under sections 1(2)(C), 6, 7, 13 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Act, 2004, ditto section 4 of the Police Act, 2004 within the confines of the law.”
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