Following his alleged disobedience to a legitimate court order, an Abuja High Court sitting in Maitama ruled that the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, be remanded in prison custody.
The court found the EFCC boss guilty of contempt of court in a ruling delivered by Justice Chizoba Oji after it was revealed that he refused to return a Range Rover Sport (Super Charge) vehicle valued at N40 million that the anti-graft agency seized from a former Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, Air Vice Marshal, AVM, Rufus Adeniyi Ojuawo.
In an order dated November 21, 2018, Justice Orji directed the Commission to restore the exotic vehicle to AVM Ojuawo.
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In 2016, the former NAF Director of Operations appeared in front of trial Justice Muawiyah Baba Idris of the High Court of the FCT at Nyanya for allegedly collecting N40 million and a Range Rover Sport from one Hima Aboubakar of Societe D’Equipment Internationaux Nigeria Limited.
He was charged with two counts of criminal mischief.
Following a separate process started by the defendant against the Commission, the top court decided in 2018 that the seized vehicle be returned to him.
However, four years after the order was issued, the defendant’s attorney, Mr. R.N. Ojabo, called the court’s attention to the fact that the EFCC had failed to comply with it.
Irked by the development, Justice Orji, ordered the arrest and remand of the EFCC Chairman over his wilful disobedience to an extant order of the court.
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“The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is in contempt of the orders of this honourable court made on November 21st 2018 directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja to return to the applicant his Range Rover (Super charge) and the sum of N40, 000,000.00 (Forty Million Naira).
“Having continued wilfully in disobedience to the order of this court, he should be committed to prison at Kuje Correctional Centre for his disobedience, and continued disobedience of the said order of court made on November 21st, 2018, until he purges himself of the contempt”, Justice Orji held.
Meanwhile, the EFCC’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, told Newsmen on Tuesday that the agency would appeal the verdict.
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