…Accuses agency of embarking on self-help
…Our visit, only to ascertain assets of company —EFCC
…As Guild of Editors condemns action

By  Soni Daniel, Abdulwahab Abdulah and Adekunle Aliyu

LAGOS — The Sun Publishing Limited has prayed  the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal to restrain  the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, or its agents from sealing off its premises pending the hearing and determination of its appeal before the court.

The newspaper organisation took the step, following yesterday’s invasion of its head office located in Kirikiri, Lagos, by operatives of the anti-graft agency.

But the EFCC claimed that its visit was to ascertain the state of assets of the company, which it said were under a subsisting forfeiture order.

In a motion on notice filed and dated June 12, 2017, the company accused the EFCC of resorting to self-help by attempting to enforce an interim forfeiture order, which had been appealed upon.

In the motion filed by its counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), The Sun referred the court to the pending motion for stay of execution of the ex-parte interim order of forfeiture earlier granted by a Federal High Court.

Ibrahim Magu, Acting EFCC chairman and Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, Publisher, The Sun newspapers

The said originating summons sought inter alia, an order of the Federal High Court  temporarily forfeit the assets of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, the former governor of Abia State.

Justice Chikere, according to the newspaper, had granted the interim order sought by the EFCC on July 24, 2007 without any notice to the appellant or any investigation or charge pending against the appellant.

The Sun averred that it was a duly registered publishing company in Nigeria, having a distinct legal personality, and is not an asset of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, and was not subject nor suspect of any investigation, and an accused person with any charge pending against her, and was not made a party to the proceedings before the said Federal High Court.

Its  motion brought pursuant to order 4, rule 6 of the Court of Appeal rules, 2016, it is seeking an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the respondent (the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC), either by themselves, their agents, officers, servants, privies or anybody, howsoever, described from enforcing or attempting to enforce, or purporting to enforce, the ex parte interim order of forfeiture made by Justice Anwuri Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja in suit No. FHC/ABJ/M/462/07 made on July 2007 adversely affecting and against the appellant/applicant, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal.

The appellant had filed an appeal against the decision of Justice Chikere, which is still pending before the Court of Appeal.

In addition, the appellant also filed a motion for stay of execution of the ex-parte interim order made by the Federal High Court, adversely affecting the appellant/applicant, which appeal is also pending before the appellate court.

The publishing outfit has since filed her brief of arguments in this appeal and ready to prosecute the appeal, but the respondent who is out of time, filed a motion for extension of time, which is yet to be taken, and which has delayed the hearing of the appeal.

Counsel to the appellant, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), has accused the EFCC of resulting to self-help  by attempting to enforce the interim order by trying to seal off the appellant/ applicant’s office premises.

He told  the Court of Appeal in his motion that the resort to self-help by the EFCC will render the appeal nugatory and will amount to undue interference with the subject matter in litigation before the court.

Our position—The Sun

In a 20-paragraph supporting affidavit deposed by Alexander Ebute, the applicant traced the history of the case with respect to the ex-parte originating summons filed by the EFCC and dated July 20, 2007 .

In an earlier statement, entitled ‘’INVASION OF THE SUN PREMISES: OUR POSITION,  the company said:  “Law-abiding staff of The Sun Publishing Limited resumed work this morning, June 12, 2017 to behold heavily armed EFCC operatives in our company. They claimed to have “orders from above” to seal up the premises of The Sun Publishing Limited.

“At gunpoint, they ordered our security personnel to take them round the company premises, after which they proceeded to prevent staff from either entering or leaving the premises, and disrupted our circulation process.

“For one gruelling hour, EFCC operatives subjected our staff to crude intimidation, psychological and emotional trauma, even as some of the men accused our organisation of publishing pro-Biafra, Boko Haram and Niger Delta militant stories, as they surveyed our premises.

“We recall that in 2007 (10 years ago), the EFCC had obtained an interim forfeiture order in respect of some assets of The Sun, attached to a suit against our Publisher, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, for which we have filed an appeal, which is still pending in court.

“We also recall that the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, had written a letter personally signed by him dated 23rd of May and received on the 7th of June, asking The Sun management to report to the commission on 5th of June, detailing our operations in the last 10 years, on account of an interim order of forfeiture under appeal

“As law-abiding corporate citizen, our lawyer, Chief Chris Uche SAN, wrote the commission to intimate the Agency that the issue was pending before the court of Appeal. The receipt of our correspondence was duly acknowledged.

“We were, therefore, shocked that our premises would be invaded by the commission under whatever guise. This is condemnable and reprehensible. No one, agency or authority should be above the laws of our country. An abuse of the law is a recipe for chaos.

‘’Magu had in an earlier letter threatened to sue The Sun over a report published by one of our titles, pertaining to a report on investigation of a property allegedly traced to his wife. But up till now, we are yet to receive any court process.

“In the light of the above, we strongly view this onslaught against The Sun as a personal vendetta by the leadership of the Commission, and by extension a declaration of war against the media.”

Our visit, only to ascertain assets of company – EFCC

But the EFCC claimed that its visit was to ascertain the state of assets of the company, which it said were under a subsisting forfeiture order.

Spokesman of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, made the position of the agency known in a statement released to Vanguard last night in Abuja.

Uwujaren said the visit had nothing to do with any publication by the newspaper but was specifically geared towards determining the assets of the company.

He said: “The visit, which lasted for less an hour was part of routine efforts to ascertain the state of the assets of the publishing company, which is subject of subsisting interim forfeiture order. Prior to the visit, the commission had written to the management of the company to account for its management of the assets for the period of the subsisting court order.

“The Commission still awaits the response of The Sun and will not be distracted by any attempt to whip up sentiments by alluding to an appeal which has been pending for ten years. The Commission’s action is without prejudice to any appeal and only meant to verify the integrity of the assets.

“Contrary to claims in a statement released to the media by the management of the Sun, no staff of the media outfit was molested or intimidated for the few minutes that operatives of the Commission spent in the premises of the company.”

Guild of Editors condemns action

Reacting to the invasion, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, said:  ‘’The NGE received with shock news of the invasion of the premises of The SUN Publishing Limited by heavily armed EFCC operatives in the early hours of June 12, 2017.

“The fierce looking operatives prevented staff of the organisation from either entering or leaving the premises of the company and disrupted the circulation processes.  The unwarranted siege to the company subjected staff of the organisation to crude intimidation, psychological and emotional trauma.

‘’The EFCC had accused THE SUN of publishing pro-Biafra, Boko Haram and Niger Delta militant stories.  The latest action of the EFCC on a newspaper house is a sad reminder of the dark years of military dictatorship and a deliberate effort to muzzle the press.

“As a statutory agency birthed by an Act of Parliament in a democracy, we had expected the EFCC to explore civil means of addressing perceived infraction by a critical stakeholder in the Nigerian democratic project.

‘’Rather than see the Fourth Estate of the Realm as an opposition, the commission should realise that the media is an indispensable partner in its fight against corruption.  The Guild notes that the latest affront on THE SUN by operatives of the EFCC is one in a number of targeted attempts by a section of the nation’s security apparatchik to gag free press.

‘’We recall the recent expulsion of Mr. Olalekan Adetayo, the State House correspondent of Punch Newspapers from Aso Rock by Bashir Abubakar, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The Guild condemns the EFCC action in its entirety and calls on the commission to purge itself of all anti-democratic tendencies in order to foster mutual cooperation with the media and other stakeholders in its crusade against graft.

“The Guild calls on the EFCC to put an end to its current attempts to gag the Press and also demands an unreserved apology from the Commission to the SUN Publishing Limited.”

I’m not surprised—Fani-Kayode

Reacting to the invasion, former Aviation Minister, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, said:  “I am not in the least surprised by this development because that is the way this government has been behaving for the last two years.

“If it is not the homes and offices of opposition figures that they are raiding for no just cause, it is that of judges, National Assembly members, bloggers, writers and journalists.

“They do not know how to run a country and their incompetence is not only self-evident but it also speaks volumes.  They are always threatening the most basic freedoms of the Nigerian people, attempting to destroy and malign them.

“The truth is that they want to turn Nigeria into a police state and to intimidate everyone and anyone that is ready to expose their evil and that speaks truth about their abominable record of performance in office. In this respect, they are worst than Hitler’s Nazis.

“What they fail to appreciate is that they will not be in power forever and that governments come and governments go. One day they themselves will be subjected to this kind of wickedness and they will be the ones on the receiving end of this type of evil.”

‘’I am surprised that Acting President Osinbajo, who I have some respect for, can sit by and allow such things to happen under his watch.

‘’The EFCC and any other government security or intelligence agency ought to be encouraged to do their job but they must operate within the confines of decency and the law.”

‘’They are not above the law and they should stop breaking it and operating with impunity. They should stop violating the human rights and civil liberties of the Nigerian people in the course of their duty.

‘’The Acting President should call them to order and keep them on a tight leash. This government must be made to understand that nobody is intimidated by the antics of these gutless and cowardly bullies or by their gestapo tactics.

‘’The worse they can do is to kill and they can only do that if God permits it.  They are heartless, wicked, contemptous, crooked, full of poison and evil and God will punish them for their lies and the wickedness that they continue to inflict on good and decent innocent men and women all over this country.

‘’Yet whatever they choose to do let it be clearly understood that an attack on the media, the press, free speech and press fredom is an attack on us all and we will resist it with every fibre of our being.

‘’We cannot be muscled, muzzled or silenced and   they have absolutely no right to behave in this barbaric and unlawful mannner.

‘’I condemn this shameless raid and I urge the Sun Newspaper and ALL other media houses, both online and offline, not to allow themselves to be intimidated or cowered into submission.  It is only a matter of time before this evil darkness that has gripped our nation and that torments our people passes.’’