The embattled Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, Mr. Rickey Tarfa has withdrawn
the N5billion fundamental rights
violation suit he filed against the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) and four others. The
senior lawyer had filed the suit, alleging
violation of his right to privacy by the
respondents.

Following the withdrawal of the suit, the
trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris
awarded a punitive cost of N10, 000
against Tarfa in favour of each of the
five respondents.

Apart from the EFCC and its Acting
Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, the other
respondents include Mrs. Rashidatou
Abdou, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and MTN
Nigeria Communications Limited.
Tarfa had filed the suit following his
arrest on February 5 by EFCC operatives
on the premises of the Lagos State High
Court in Igbosere, where he allegedly hid
two suspects in his car to prevent their
arrest.
.
His two mobile phones and his Mercedez
Benz SUV with Registration No. KJA 700
CG, were confiscated by the EFCC.
Tarfa alleged that the respondents
violated his right to privacy by allegedly
scrutinising his call logs. He therefore
urged the court to declare that the
respondents violated his right protected
by Section 37 of the Constitution, when,
without a court order, MTN allegedly
made the call log on his mobile line,
08034600000 , available to the EFCC and
the others respondents, who in turn
allegedly released the information to
Sahara Reporters and other online
media.

He had also urged the court to hold that
the respondents acted unlawfully when
they accessed his bank details, clients’
information, private and confidential
information contained in his iPhone 6
and Samsung 6 without a court order or
any reasonable cause.
He had urged the court to award N5bn
damages against the respondents in his
favour, stressing that no amount of
money could adequately redress the
“unquantifiable and irreparable damage
done to him, his reputation, his business
and his goodwill.”

But a lawyer from his chambers,
Olatunde Oladele, appeared before
Justice Idris yesterday with an ex parte
application to discontinue the case.
Oladele gave no reason for Tarfa’s
decision to withdraw the case but an
inside source confided on The Guardian
that the telecommunication giant,
already encumbered with crisis, is
considering the option of out of court
settlement with the senior advocate in
order not to add to its existing
controversies.

Counsel to EFCC, Mr. Wahab Shittu and
Rotimi Oyedepo, who also appeared in
court, said they were not opposed to the
withdrawal of the suit but urged the
court to award a punitive cost against
Tarfa.
“My Lord, we have no objection to the
discontinuance of the suit but we want
the court to award a punitive cost
against the applicant; our names have
been flying around in the major
newspapers since yesterday,” Shittu said.
But Oladele argued that the EFCC’s
lawyers had no right of reply because his
application was an ex parte application.
Besides, he said the respondents could
not be demanding for cost because Tarfa
had not served them with the suit.
But Shittu argued that since the filing of
the suit was widely reported in the
newspapers, it was tantamount to
serving the respondents by substituted
means.

In a short ruling, Justice Idris struck out
the suit and ordered Tarfa to pay a cost
of N10, 000 to each of the respondents.