By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA – The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to within 30 days, pay N12.5million fine for infringing on the fundamental rights of Senator Abdulaziz Nyako.

Admiral Murtala Nyako

Abdulaziz is the first son of a former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako.

The court, in a ruling that was delivered by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, held that the EFCC must pay the fine which was awarded against it in a judgment that was delivered since June 22, 2016.

The anti-graft was in the said judgment, found to have illegal detained Abdulaziz who is currently representing Adamawa Central in the Senate, beyond the constitutionally specified period.

Aside faulting the agency for arbitrarily keeping the applicant in detention for three days, Justice Kolawole equally noted that EFCC froze the applicant’s bank accounts for over two years without a court order.

Consequently, it awarded N12.5million fine in favour of the applicant who had initiated a fundamental right enforcement proceeding against the anti-graft agency.

Meanwhile, the EFCC had re-approached the court via a motion dated July 4, 2016, asking it to stay execution of the judgment on the premise that it has lodged an appeal against it.

While dismissing the application yesterday, Justice Kolawole stressed that almost a year after the said judgment was delivered, EFCC failed to adduce any evidence to show that it has indeed entered an appeal to challenge the fine that was imposed against it.

Justice Kolawale held that there was no circumstantial situation to warrant the stay of the judgment since no cogent reason was placed before the court to enable it to exercise its discretion in favour of the agency.

The Judge held that the EFCC should within 30 days issue a bank draft in the sum of N12.5million in the name of the Chief Registrar of the high court.

It ordered that the registrar should open an interest yielding account in a reputable bank of his choice with the draft.

According to the Judge, in the event that the anti-graft agency fails to deposit the bank draft within 30 days, he gave Senator Nyako the nod to apply for garnishee order nisi.

EFCC had in its motion on notice prayed the court to halt the execution of the judgment, saying it will not be able to undertake its statutory functions should it pay the N12.5 million fine to Nyako.

It urged the court to okay the stay of execution request pending the outcome of its appeal.

While dismissing the motion, the court stressed that EFCC did not place any material it could rely upon to exercise discretion in its favour.

The court held that though it has powers to grant stay in the execution of judgements involving money, it said that such discretionary powers must be seen to be judicially and judiciously exercised as required by law.

The court maintained that EFCC, being an organisation established by law, ought to conduct its statutory functions within the ambits of the law

Justice Kolawole said it was unconstitutional for security agencies to arrest and detain suspects before fishing around for evidence against them.

The court equally frowned at what it described as illegal trend of security agencies rushing to Magistrate Court to secure detention warrants in matters beyond the jurisdiction of such Magistrate Courts.

Justice Kolawole maintained that such action by security agencies amounts to corruption.

He said: “In this instant case, EFCC cannot be said to be a diligent party having just filed notice of appeal in a judgment delivered over a year ago and did not raise any grounds of special circumstances for granting of stay of the execution.

“The EFCC should wake up and realise that the law that established it is not a cosmetic law but one that is designed to protect Nigerian citizens from acts of recklessness in the name of performing statutory functions.

“Let me say here that it is a political slogan that security agencies cannot be subjected to court order when it goes out of its way to infringe on the fundamental rights of the citizens.

“The act of arresting and detaining before investigation is bizarre and must not be condoned by any law court.

“Dumping Suspects on remand through magistrate court orders in matters where magistrate courts have no jurisdiction is not only tragic but unfortunate and this trend must be stopped, the security agencies must realise that Nigeria is now being governed through democratic procedure”, the Judge held.