Fayose Floors EFCC At Appeal Court
The Appeal Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Tuesday dismissed an interlocutory application brought before it by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), seeking to restrain the Zenith Bank Plc from allowing Governor Ayodele Fayose’s from having access to his accounts domiciled in the bank.
The account was last year June frozen over allegation that it contained a sum of N2.999 billion out of the 3.2 billion dollars suspected to have been distributed through the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col Belo Dasuki.
The EFCC is also requesting a stay of execution of the judgment of the lower court.
However, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti, had last year December 13, unfrozen Fayose’s domiciliary accounts in Zenith Bank, Ado Ekiti branch, leading to the withdrawal of a sum of N5 million from the same account by the governor shortly after the judgment.
Consequent upon this, the EFCC had filed an appeal against the judgment and prayed the court to freeze the account on the premise that the money was a proceed of crime and should not be touched pending the dispensation of justice on the matter to prove Fayose’s innocence.
Delivering his judgment, the appeal court panel comprising Justices Ahmed Belgore, Fatima Akinbami and Paul Elechi, in a unanimous verdict dismissed the application .
The judgment read by Justice Akinbami said: “No valid appeal has been made against the judgment of the lower court which unfroze the account.
“EFCC also failed to show sufficient evidence that the money in the account was a proceed of crime as claimed. In doing this, we expect the EFCC to have shown evidence that the plaintiff has been tried for criminal offence before for it to assume that he can receive proceeds of crime.
“We also found that there was suppression of facts to get the account frozen in the first instance. It was also noted that Governor Fayose, in line with Section 308, enjoys immunity and his personal account can’t be frozen.
Reacting to the judgment, Fayose’s Lawyer , Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), described the judgment as a landmark that conveyed a clear message that the EFCC is gradually becoming a lawless organization.
Ozekhome said the anti-graft agency will continue to lose cases it filed against suspects in court until a time when it divorces itself from selective justice and taking biased positions in the politics of the country.
