Many Nigerians worried by the systemic looting of the national treasury heaved a sigh of relief when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was established in 2003. The EFCC Act which was first enacted in December 2002 and later replaced by the EFCC (Establishment) Act 2004, was a response to pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering, which named Nigeria as one of 23 countries non-cooperative in the international community’s efforts to fight the malaise.

The expectation was that, with the EFCC, further spread of the malignant tumour of corruption, which was already metastasizing, could be halted. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Consequentially, all the past chairmen, Nuhu Ribadu, Mrs. Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Lamorde, Ibrahim Magu, and Abdulrasheed Bawa left office in a hail of controversy, none with head held high. The incumbent, Ola Olukayode, a lawyer, seems determined to travel the same route. Ironically, even in the face of palpable evidence, any corruption allegation against officials of the anti-corruption agency is dismissed whimsically. The usual refrain is: “When you fight corruption, it fights back.” But such rhetoric no longer sways Nigerians who have seen cases of recovered assets being re-looted. There are also cases of recovered assets being sold to cronies at ridiculously low prices as confirmed by the Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets which probed Magu’s stewardship.

But rather than show remorse, whenever the EFCC is caught in the egregious act of brazen impunity, it doubles down, resorting to subterfuge and outright lies. And that is exactly what it is doing against its latest victim, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, an economist, veteran journalist and politician, who it has thrown under the grinding wheels of its lawless locomotive, by forcefully evicting him from his Abuja residence, where he has been a tenant since 2014. On Tuesday, the EFCC described media reports that it ignored judicial directives on the matter as misleading and a distortion of facts, insisting that it had lawfully obtained an order of possession over the property. According to the anti-graft agency, Justice Musa Liman granted the order on March 27, 2025, after the Commission presented evidence showing that the property was a proceed of unlawful activity by former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, and had been forfeited to the Federal Government. “It is not in the character of the EFCC to engage in judicial disobedience,” the Commission stated. “We obtained a legitimate order of possession from the court, and there was no misrepresentation of facts before Justice Liman.”

But the EFCC, rather than Chief Emenike is distorting the facts, which are: On September 10, 2014, Chief Emenike leased a five bedroom detached duplex on No 6 Aso Drive, Abuja from Blaid Properties Limited at the sum of N16 million per annum. The agreement which took effect from December 31, 2014 subsisted until the dramatic events of 2016 when the EFCC listed it as one of the assets recovered from Mrs Alison-Madueke and on April 13, 2016, Justice Binta Nyako ordered its forfeiture to the Federal Government. 

Consequent upon the forfeiture, EFCC appointed Festus Azikagbon & Associates as the new manager of the property. In a letter addressed to Chief Emenike by the EFCC on October 14, 2016 titled “Management of forfeited property by the EFCC,” the Commission wrote: “The above property which you currently occupy was forfeited in an interim forfeiture order to the Federal Government through the Commission in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/228/2016 dated 13th April 2016. Pursuant to the order, the Commission has appointed the firm of Festus Azikagbon & Associates as the new manager of the property and you are requested to regularise your occupation of the property with the new manager based on terms presented to you.” Chief Emenike complied with the directive and entered a new tenancy agreement with the EFCC-appointed manager on January 1, 2017. So, EFCC lied, as it is wont to do, when it claimed that while Emenike had a rental agreement with the former minister, he had not been paying rent to the Commission for over a decade. There is evidence of continued payment of rent to EFCC’s designated manager until December 31, 2022.

The payment was halted in 2023 at the instance of EFCC because when the Commission advertised the property for sell as required by law, Chief Emenike indicated interest and subsequently had a meeting with Chairman Bawa on the need to grant him the right of first refusal. The then EFCC boss agreed but promised that they would get back to him after re-evaluating the property. Surprisingly, EFCC reneged on the promise. Instead, in a December 28, 2022 letter, Aliyu M. Yusuf, Director, Department of Proceeds of Crime Management, wrote to Emenike on behalf of Bawa thus: “I refer to your letter dated 3rd November 2022, wherein you requested to be given right of first refusal should the… property be put up for sale by the Commission. The Commission regret (sic) to inform you that the said property is not listed for disposal to either members of the public or the sitting tenant as same has been earmarked for public purpose.”

Dissatisfied, Emenike sued EFCC. After several months, Justice A.H. Musa of the High Court of the FCT ruled that as a sitting tenant, EFCC should grant the applicant the right of first refusal. That judgement has not been vacated. Subsequently, on June 24, 2024, Prince Azikagbon wrote Chief Emenike demanding for the payment of outstanding rent. The letter titled, “Re: Rent demand/reminder notice in respect of forfeited property at House No. 6 Aso Drive Abuja by EFCC,” concluded thus: “Please note that this is a requirement for the purchase of the above mentioned property.” Chief Emenike complied with the demand by raising four bank drafts totalling N32,000,000 on September 13, 2024 in favour of Festus Azikagbon and Associates. So, why is EFCC lying over a matter that it knows has documented evidence? Brazen impunity!

But that is even the least of the Commission’s lies. Its claim that there was no court order to vacate the property is even more egregious. Granted, that it had dubiously obtained an order of possession over the property, but the same court vacated the order when it was seized of the facts.  

The truth is that the EFCC, typically, went to a Federal High Court in Abuja on an ex-parte application and secured an eviction order with which they stormed the property and took possession. But when Chief Emenike approached the same court with the facts, the judge reversed the order. In his May 15, 2025 ruling, Justice M.S. Liman said a Court of law reserved the right to set aside its own judgement which was given by misrepresentation, deceit or fraud.

Upbraiding the EFCC counsel, Francis Usani, Justice Liman said: “Any Order obtained by reason of suppression of fact, fraud or deceit cannot stand… The suppression of fact concerning the subject matter – No. 6 Aso Drive – by the counsel to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission amounts to material misrepresentation and suppression of material fact which if it had been brought to the knowledge of the court would have altered the decision made on the 27th March 2025… the order made by this court… regarding No. 6 Aso Drive which led to the eviction of the applicant is hereby vacated and accordingly set aside. It is not an order that would have been granted if the material disclosure of full facts were made.”

Restraining the EFCC by themselves, their servants, agents howsoever described from trespassing into or coming near the property, Justice Liman also made an order mandating the chief bailiff/bailiffs of the court to “reopen/unlock No 6 Aso Drive Abuja from where the applicant and his family were driven away,” and “upon reopening/unlocking the premises restore the applicant back therein and clean all the red marks painted on the premises by the EFCC.” So, EFCC lied shamelessly. What is worse, more than one month after the judgement, it has stopped the bailiffs from executing the court mandate. Such acts of impunity are not surprising, though, as they are typical of the EFCC that has become an outlaw, literally.

What is strange is Olukayode’s claim that it is not in the character of the EFCC to engage in judicial disobedience. How can a Commission that is trampling on the rights of a law-abiding citizen, who was a Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and whose wife, Dr Uzoma Emenike, is the first and only Nigerian female ambassador to the U.S. make such spurious claim? It is sad that an agency led by a lawyer is so contemptuous of the courts. The question that Nigerians must ask is why the EFCC is so fixated with this property. To be sure, the EFCC Establishment Act 2004 does not empower the Commission to retain recovered funds or any percentage thereof. To so do is tantamount to re-looting recovered assets.

So, there is no putting lipstick on this pig. By insisting on keeping House 6, Aso Drive, Asokoro, Abuja for itself, EFCC is doing what it has been accused of in the past – re-looting recovered assets. That is disingenuous. The Commission’s claim to commitment to due process and respect for the rule of law is a ruse. It has become an outlaw. That is unacceptable.