Court jails EFCC chair Bawa for contempt

The Kogi State High Court in Lokoja has ordered the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, to be imprisoned for disobeying its order.

The court also directed the Inspector General of Police to arrest Mr Bawa and remand him in Kuje prison, Abuja, for the next 14 days, Channels Television reports.

The judge, Rukayat Ayoola, ordered that Mr Bawa be detained in prison “until he purges himself of the contempt”, meaning until he clears himself of the contempt for which he was jailed.

The EFCC chairman was not present in court during the sitting and is, however, not expected to spend time in jail, despite the court ruling, based on precedence.

Ms Ayoola issued the committal order based on an application filed by Ali Bello accusing Mr Bawa of disobeying a court ruling by going ahead to arraign him on 15 December 2022 against an earlier court order made on 12 December 2022.

In the said 12 December 2022 ruling, the court ruled that the arrest and detention of Mr Bello on 29 November 2022 by EFCC and its chair in the face of an earlier subsisting court order without a warrant of arrest or being informed of the offence for which he was arrested is unlawful and unconstitutional.

The court also held that the arrest and detention of the applicant contravened his right to personal liberty and dignity of the human person guaranteed under Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Articles 5 and 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The court had also ordered the respondents to tender an apology to the applicant in a national newspaper and awarded N10 million compensation for him.

The applicant said the EFCC chairperson was directed to produce him in court but failed.

Mr Bello’s lawyer, Sumaila Abbas, had filed the application against Mr Bawa for arresting and detaining the applicant illegally.

The lawyer argued that despite the court ruling in his favour, the EFCC, in defiance of the order, went ahead, to arraign him for money laundering three days after the ruling.

The EFCC’s applications for setting aside and staying execution of the ruling were refused for want of merit.

The applicant had applied to the court to issue Form 49, titled ‘Notice to Show Cause Why Order of Committal Should not be Made.’

The court ordered that the EFCC and Mr Bawa be served the motion of notice together with Form 49 by substituted means.

Form 49, issued on 15 December 2022, and addressed to Mr Bawa directed him to appear in court on 18 January 2023.

The order issued by the court on Monday made the second time Mr Bawa would be ordered to be imprisoned by a court for contempt in less than four months.

The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja found Mr Bawa guilty of contempt on 28 October 2022.

The judge, Chizoba Oji, convicted Mr Bawa and ordered the Inspector of General of Police to put him in Kuje prison in Abuja for disobeying an earlier order of the court.

Ms Oji convicted and jailed Mr Bawa on 28 October in a ruling on an application by a former Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Rufus Ojuawo.

Mr Ojuawo, a retired air vice marshal (AVM), was previously prosecuted by the EFCC on corruption charges but was acquitted by another judge of the FCT High Court.

In his application levelling a charge of contempt against EFCC and its chairperson, Mr Ojuawo accused the agency and its leadership of violating the court’s order issued on 21 November 2018 ordering them to return his seized Range Rover and N40 million to him.

The order has been subsisting since the time of Ibrahim Magu as the acting chairperson of the EFCC. The commission continued to disobey the court order after Mr Bawa became EFCC chairman in February 2021.

But the court on 10 November 22 nullified its committal order following an application by the EFCC chair to reverse itself.

Ruling on the request, Ms Oji said she was satisfied that the EFCC Chairman did not disregard the court’s orders, asking him to release seized assets belonging to Rufus Ojuawo, a retired air vice marshal.

The judge held that evidence before her showed Mr Bawa had complied with the court’s order, directing the EFCC to return a Range Rover Sport vehicle valued at N40 million, which it confiscated from Mr Ojuawo, a former Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force.