ABUJA — Justice Peter Kekemeke of an Abuja High
Court has ordered the Inspector General of Police,
Mohammed Abubakar to arrest the Chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr
Ibrahim Lamorde, for disobeying a valid court order. Justice Kekemeke directed that the EFCC boss and an
operative of the anti-graft agency, Mr Friday Ebelo,
should be apprehended and kept in prison custody
within the next two weeks, except they apologize to a
lawyer whose fundamental human rights were
allegedly violated by the commission. Meantime, EFCC, yesterday, vowed to appeal the
ruling. We ‘ll appeal ruling — EFCC Reacting to the order, spokesman of the commission,
Mr Wilson Uwujaren, who acknowledged that a copy
of the order was served on the agency, said EFCC has
perfected plans to get it vacated. The court had on March 8 and December 5, 2012,
ordered Lamorde to release the call-to-bar certificate
of one Mr Innocent Onwu, apologize to him through a
national newspaper as well as pay him N50, 000 as
compensation. Onwu who is an Abuja-based lawyer had on October
31, 2011, initiated a fundamental rights enforcement
proceeding after he was detained by the EFCC
between June 27 and July 1, 2011 without order of
court. His detention was sequel to a petition by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, accusing him of
complicity in fraud pertaining to a case he was
investigating for a client. Dissatisfied with the way he was allegedly
manhandled by the commission, Onwu demanded
N300 million as compensation for the unlawful search
of his house and office and the trauma he suffered in
the hands of the EFCC. Besides, the lawyer, claimed his ailing mother was
admitted at the Garki General Hospital on the day he
was arrested by the EFCC, insisting that despite his
passionate pleas, the commission refused to release
him to attend to his mother, resulting to her death
three days later. The court had on June 4 and June 24 this year,
dismissed two applications filed by the EFCC counsel,
Mr James Onu, wherein he sought to void the
contempt proceeding.
Source::
www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/court-orders-arrest-of-efcc-boss-lamorde/

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