Group Faults Exparte Order Barring EFCC from Probing Ekiti Airport Project
The Ekiti Justice Group (EJG) has described as strange, the granting of exparte order by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, barring the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from probing the ex-Ekiti Procurement Director General, Seun Odewale and Ariyo Oyinkolawa Adesola over their alleged embezzlement of funds budgeted for the Ekiti Airport project.
The group said it was disturbing that Justice Nwite, who issued a bench warrant for the arrest of former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, despite the pendency of an order of a High Court stopping his arrest and prosecution, could stop the EFCC from investigating Ariyo Adesola and Odewale, who served as Director General of the Bureau of Procurement when Dr Kayode Fayemi was governor.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had, in a motion ex parte filed by Odewale and Adesola against the EFCC, ordered the anti-graft agency to “maintain the status quo” regarding its probe into the alleged embezzlement of Ekiti State funds earmarked for the Ekiti Airport project, among others.
In a statement on Tuesday, by its Coordinator, Comrade Tunji Oluwasanmi, the EJG, wondered why what was good for the goose in Kogi State was not good for the gander in Ekiti State.
The group said just as in the case of Yahaya Bello, the applicant’s lawyer, Chief R.O. Balogun, SAN, in the suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1340/2024, argued that “while the EFCC is using the investigation of Ekiti State Government finances as the basis for interrogating his clients, the propriety of the EFCC’s investigation regarding contracts awarded or executed by the government of Ekiti State is the subject of an appeal pending before the Court of Appeal in Ado-Ekiti.”
Balogun added that there was also a pending motion for a stay of execution and an injunction pending appeal. According to him, the pending case is challenging the EFCC’s power to investigate or make inquiries into the contracts awarded or projects executed with monies appropriated by the Ekiti State House of Assembly.
He claimed that all the arguments adduced in the case of Fayemi’s side, were also advanced in the case of Yahaya Bello, but Justice Nwite insisted that Yahaya Bello must face trial despite the pendency of a case in the Supreme Court, challenging the power of the EFCC to investigate or make inquiries into the contracts awarded or projects executed with monies appropriated by the Kogi State House of Assembly.
The EJG urged Nigerians to pay attention to the handling of the Ekiti case.
Insisting that those who superintended over Ekiti State funds must be made accountable to the people, the group said rather than seeking an order of the court to prevent EFCC’s investigation, those who worked with Fayemi should present themselves for probe if they don’t have skeletons in their wardrobes.
