A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the arrest and remind of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, over contempt of court.
The court ordered that the EFCC boss be remanded in prison for disobeying its order.
The presiding judge,Justice Chizoba Oji also ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba to ensure the committal order is executed.
Bawa’s conviction was predicated on his refusal to comply with a court order directing the EFCC to return a Range Rover and the sum of N40 million to the applicant in a suit.
The judge ruled that “The Chairman 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 (Supercharged) 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.
“The Inspector-General of Police shall ensure that the order of this honourable court is executed forthwith.”
According to ThePunch, the ruling which was delivered on October 28, 2022, was on a motion on notice marked: FCT/HC/M/52/2021 filed by a one-time Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Rufus Ojuawo.
Ojuawo had through his lawyer, R.N. Ojabo, filed a motion in a suit marked: FCT/HC/CR/184/2016 that the EFCC had refused to comply with the court order directing it to release his seized property.
In 2016, Ojuawo, who was accused of corruptly receiving gratification to the tune of N40 million and a Range Rover Sport (Supercharged) from one Hima Aboubakar had been arraigned by the EFCC on two counts charges before Justice Muawiyah Idris of the High Court of the FCT.
In November 2021, Justice Idris discharged and acquitted Ojuawo on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove its case.