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EFCC vs Yahaya Bello: Appeal Court Asked To Vacate Arrest Warrant, Trial Court To Adjourn Case Indefinitely, Return Case File To CJ

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Governor Yahaya Bello Reveals His Preferred Successor

EFCC vs Yahaya Bello: Appeal Court Asked To Vacate Arrest Warrant, Trial Court To Adjourn Case Indefinitely, Return Case File To CJ

 

 

 

The arraignment of the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, over the alleged N80 billion money laundering charges made against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) may be stalled again, as Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has been asked to adjourn indefinitely, proceedings in the charge, pending the determination of an appeal filed by the former governor, which is pending at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

In the Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CR/535/2024, in which the trial Judge, Justice Emeka Nwite is being accused of miscarriage of justice, Bello is, through his Counsels, Musa Yakubu (SAN) & Co, seeking the setting aside of the Warrant of Arrest believed to have been illegally issued against him on April 17, 2024, as well as return of the case file to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, for re-assignment to another Judge.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN),
the Appeal was filed against the decisions of the trial Federal High Court, Abuja, in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/98/2024.
The former governor is also seeking an order of the Appeal Court, setting aside service of the EFCC Charge on him by substituted means, including the entire proceedings already conducted in the case.

In a letter to Justice Emeka Nwite, dated July 12, 2024, counsel to Bello, Musa Yakubu (SAN) requested that further proceedings in the charge be adjourned sine die, pending the determination of the appeal filed by the former governor, which is pending at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

The letter obtained by NAN and a copy of which was sent to the National Judicial Council (NJC) and Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, was in response to a letter to Justice Nwite, by the EFCC, dated July 8, 2024 and filed on the July 10, 2024, according to information from the court registry.
In the letter, the EFCC requested for a variation of the earlier warrant of arrest issued against Bello, additionally requesting that the various security agencies be specifically directed to carry out the earlier arrest.

Responding to the EFCC’s application, Bello’s counsel urged the Court to decline the request and await the outcome of the appeal pending at the Court of Appeal over the controversial warrant of arrest and other related pronouncements of the trial Court.

According to counsel to Bello; “Drawing from the position of the law as contained in Order 4 Rule 11(1) of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021 and the pronouncement of the Supreme Court in the case of Vab Petroleum INC V. Momah [Supra] and a litany of other cases too numerous to mention here; we respectfully urge this Honourable Court ex debito justitiae to: “set aside and expunge from its records the proceedings of the 27th June, 2024, including any ruling, order or directive, same having been conducted in the face of the Defendant’s appeal entered on the 24th of May, 2024 and therefore reached per incuriam; “Refuse to countenance the application of the Complainant made vide the letter filed on the 10th of July, 2024 and or in the alternative refer same to the Court of Appeal for determination;
“Adjourn further proceedings in this charge sine die pending the determination of Appeal No: CA/ABJ/CR/536/2024 entered by the Defendant and pending at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.”

The letter read in part; “The Defendant to the Charge had on the 17th of May, 2024 filed a notice of appeal against the ruling of this Honourable Court made on the 10th of May, 2024 refusing to discharge brevi manu the warrant of arrest issued against the Defendant.

“The Defendant pursuant to the said notice of appeal, compiled and transmitted record of appeal to the Court of Appeal and entered on the 24th of May, 2024, Appeal No: CA/ABJ/CR/536/2024.

“Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Complainant has now filed the above referenced application seeking for the amendment of the warrant of arrest which was hitherto directed to the complainant only, to have it extended to the heads of other security and law enforcement agencies listed in the prosecuting Counsel’s letter.

“My Lord, this Honourable Court cannot countenance the application or do anything with respect to the aforesaid warrant of arrest or conduct further proceedings in this charge in view of the provisions of Order 4 Rule 11(1) of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021 which is to the effect that: “After an appeal has been entered and until it has been finally disposed of, the Court shall be seized of the whole of the proceedings as between the parties thereto.’ Except as may be otherwise provided in these Rules, every application therein shall be made to the Court and not to the lower Court.

“The warrant of arrest upon which the Complainant’s application is predicated, is subject of appeal in Appeal No: CA/ABJ/CR/536/2024 and by the above reproduced provision of the Court of Appeal rules, this Honourable Court has become functus officio and no longer has the jurisdiction to entertain any application or do anything touching on the warrant of arrest issued on the 17th of April, 2024 as the Court of Appeal is now seized of the matter. By virtue of the appeal entered by the Defendant, the warrant of arrest subject of the Complainant’s application is now in total abeyance pending the determination of the Defendant’s appeal one way or another.

“To take any contrary step to the provisions of Order 4 Rule 11(1) of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021, would be tantamount to undermining the Constitutional guaranteed Appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal under Section 240 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and against the grain of settled position of the law established by the Supreme Court of Nigeria to the effect that, when an appeal has been entered, the lower Court no longer has the jurisdiction to do anything in the matter and ought to abide by the decision of the Appellate Court as any step taken by the trial Court in the face of such appeal is a nullity. see the case ofVab Petroleum INC V. Momah [20131 14 NWLR Part 1374 P. 284.”

Furthermore, the attention of Justice Emeka Nwite was drawn to a similar case, also a criminal appeal,’ in which Justice Ismail Ijelu of the High Court of Lagos State stayed further proceedings, the Appellant having entered an appeal in Appeal No: CAIL/1159/2023 Between Chief Cletus Ibeto V. Federal Republic of Nigeria, challenging the warrant of arrest earlier issued against him, in the face of his preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the lower Court to entertain the charge filed by the Complainant against him.

“The trial High Court, a Court of co-ordinate jurisdiction with Your Lordship’s Court has stayed further proceedings in the charge pending the determination of the appeal entered by the Appellant therein.

“The Complainant’s application to you therefore, ought not to have been filed at all or if need be, ought to be brought before the Court of Appeal, Abuja which is now seized of the matter. The Complainant’s Counsel as a senior member of the Bar is under a duty to have brought the appeal entered by the Defendant to the attention of this Honourable Court even during the proceedings of 27th of June, 2024, is rather proceeding egregiously as if he is oblivious of and impervious to the appeal entered by the Defendant to the Charge before your Lordship’s Court.

“We therefore respectfully urge your Lordship not to be misled sir or hoodwinked by the Complainant into a head on collision with the Court of Appeal, but rather tow the above stated and well-established course of action.

“To do otherwise, would be an affront on the hallowed principle of judicial hierarchy and stare decisis which is the very foundation of our legal system,” the letter read further.

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Brace Foundation Gives Attention to Children with Special Needs

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Brace Foundation Gives Attention to Children with Special Needs

The Brace Foundation on Friday in Lagos organised a workshop to deepen the knowledge of those caring for children with special needs in one way or the other. The workshop was aimed at improving the lives of children with special needs.

 

At the event held at Lekki, the Chairman of Brace Foundation, Dr Gabriel Ogbechie, said that the workshop had become necessary to increase the level of awareness as regards care for children with special needs.
The workshop had in attendance no fewer than 1,200 participants drawn from public and private sectors attended the workshop. They include parents, guardians, educators, caregivers, health workers, therapists, legal experts, clergymen and members of the Red Cross Society.

Ogbechie said there was need to educate the society more about the peculiarities of people with special needs.
“They are still human beings who the society needs to accept for who they are.” “Growing up, I saw children with special needs. We didn’t understand what special needs were, and they were maltreated by the society. Education has made us to understand that what the children actually had were special needs and nothing else,” he said.

He regretted that children with special needs struggled with learning and many other things.“We have seen children with special needs struggle in school and the larger society, and we felt that it is a space we can bring in resources through this workshop. This will help these children to live a better life, integrate better into the society and live a fulfilled life,” he added.

The workshop discussed speech therapy, art of communication, special needs, and navigating behavioural challenge, among others issues.

Earlier, the Executive Director of Brace Foundation, Dr Soibi Hephzibah, said that the foundation focused on education of children with special needs. She noted that it involved behavioural and occupational education.
In her remarks, the Vice Chairperson of the foundation, Mrs Godrey Ogbechie, said that all children had needs but some required special needs due to one challenge or the other.

“We want to make it easier for them to have supportive mechanisms that will help them to strive. Even the ones we term normal have needs but they are just different,” she said.

The Head of Lagos Preparatory School, Ikoyi, Lagos, Mrs Dipa Horsfall, who was a participant at the workshop, advised parents of children with special needs to give them more attention.

Horsfall urged the federal and state governments to do more to improve healthcare services for children with special needs to discourage taking them abroad for healthcare

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Professor Fidelis Oditah is Wrong about the EFCC By Dele Oyewale

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Professor Fidelis Oditah is Wrong about the EFCC

By Dele Oyewale

Professor Fidelis Oditah’s recent interactive discussion on a wide range of issues on Arise News, are quite engaging. As a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN and an international legal mind, his views on national issues cannot be disregarded. Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once said, “with words we govern men”. Thus, Oditah’ s words are important and cannot be dismissed as empty effusion lacking weight or impact.

However, the learned Professor’s submission on what he called the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC’s three fundamental problems are, to say the least, prejudicial, unfounded and misleading. First, Oditah stated that “The EFCC is often being used for settling many scores. Some are political scores, some are social scores. So, you could run away from your girlfriend and the girlfriend goes to the EFCC and the EFCC could ask you questions(sic). What has that got to do with economic crimes? That is blatant abuse of power”(sic).

How on earth will this kind of a scenario painted by the learned silk hold water? The simplest argument against this kind of effusion is to challenge Oditah to provide proofs of such banality. We all know that this just an idle talk because the EFCC is a serious- minded law enforcement agency. The only worrisome aspect of such a talk is that it betrays an embarrassing lack of grasp of what the EFCC’s focus is.

This issue of appropriate and proper focusing of the mandate of the EFCC has been a central pivot of the three- pronged agenda of the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede. In the full glare of the entire world, while addressing members of the National Assembly in October 2023, Olukoyede stated that the focus of every fight against corruption was to stimulate growth in the economy. For more than a year now, the EFCC’s boss has been consistently following this route. The review of the arrest and bail procedures of the EFCC is in line with this. Professor Oditah is probably busy with his works as a King’s Counsel in the United Kingdom and have no time to be abreast of development in the EFCC. Olukoyede is a lawyer of high pedigree and would not allow what the learned counsel called “ blatant abuse of power”.

The second “ fundamental problem of the EFCC”, according to Oditah is that “The EFCC has abandoned its mandate and reduce itself to a debt- collection agency, notwithstanding the numerous court decisions saying the EFCC must stay within the narrow confines of financial and economic crimes. The EFCC has gone out for debt recovery”. This submission, again, is hollow and vacuous. The EFCC’s Establishment Act does not empower the Commission to collect debt on behalf of anyone. The recovery the EFCC does is taking back proceeds of crime from fraudsters. Asset recovery, all over the world, is a fundamental law enforcement and anti- corruption initiative. As a matter of fact, it is the ground norm of every anti- corruption fight. To this end, Olukoyede in just one year, recovered  N248,750,049,365.52 (Two Hundred and Forty-Eight Billion, Seven Hundred and Fifty Million, Forty-Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Naira, Fifty-Two Kobo).

In foreign currencies,  recoveries of the Commission in the one year of Olukoyede’s leadership are: $105,423,190.39 (One Hundred and Five Million, Four Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Ninety Dollars, Thirty-Nine Cents); £ 53,133.64 (Fifty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty-Three Pounds, Sixty-Four Pence; €172,547.10 (One Hundred and Seventy-Two Thousand, Five Hundred and Forty-Seven Euros, Ten Cents) and many others.

Going by the quantum of these recoveries, not to talk of real estate recovered all over the country, including shares acquired with proceeds of crime in blue- chip companies, it is simply preposterous to reduce and ridicule asset recoveries to debt recovery. Professor Oditah owes the EFCC and the entire nation unconditional apology in this regard. Just two days ago, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos granted final forfeitures of over $2million and seven princely properties in choice areas of Lagos to the Federal Government. The assets are proceeds of crime traced to a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. Do such recoveries fall into the category of debt recovery insinuation of Oditah? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently directed that N100billion be channeled to the funding of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation, CreditCorp, respectively from the monetary recoveries of the EFCC. Is the Professor aware of all these? It is evident that bringing down the issue of asset recovery to the ridiculous corridor of debt recovery is deliberate caricature of an important anti- corruption framework of the government. This is an initiative which local, regional and international agencies are commending Olukoyede and the EFCC about. It is to be noted also that the Director of FBI and the DG of National Crime Agency in the UK where he resides have paid cortesty visits to Olukoyede commending him on the feat he has attained in the fight against corruption and financial crimes and to seek more collaboration with the agency in their shared mandate of fighting corruption and financial crimes

The third issue Odikah raised against the EFCC, like the earlier issues, again, lacks any firm ground of substance. Hear him:
“The EFCC itself, a number of officers are more corrupt than those they are chasing. So, you remember what happened to Mr Bawa, Mr Matawalle, when Mr Matawalle finished his tenure as governor of Zamfara state and he said he was invited by Mr Bawa to bring $2million so as not to be investigated. The EFCC itself has become a corrupt organisation which needs to be completely disbanded and a new body set up . The EFCC has the resources. It does not have the ethics. The EFCC majors on minor issues, catching students and showing them as cyber criminals and so it says, it procured 1000 convictions and when you look at them they are people who have defrauded people of 20 or 22 dollars. That’s not the mandate. That’s the periphery. The central mandate is to ensure that the resources which are put in the hands of states are used by the states and that’s where the EFCC”

Going through all these trumped- up claims, it is obvious that Oditah has elected to totally launch unwarranted verbal war against the Commission and its officers. How many officers of the EFCC have been tainted with corruption allegations? Is it acceptable to use the “ sins” of very few elements in a community to paint and taint it as a community of sinners? It should be noted that there is no law enforcement agency in the world that is not vulnerable to corrupt officers. What is important is what the agency is doing to such elements. Olukoyede is known for his no- nonsense approach to ethical issues in the Commission. As a matter of fact, upon assumption of duties, he directed every officer of the Commission to declare their assets and ensure that verification of assets so declared is established. He went ahead to name the Department of Internal Affairs as Department of Ethics and Integrity. Beyond all these, some erring officers of the Commission have either been shown the way out or facing trial. In recent times, the Commission has had cause to dismiss some officers on allegations of corruption and gross misconduct. The EFCC is self- cleansing and the Commission deserves commendation for this.

It is worrisome that a Professor of the reputation and exposure of Oditah could dismiss the Commission’s onslaught against internet fraudsters as an unserious engagement. The damages this genre of fraudsters are causing the nation is untold. A crime that has a projection of $10.6trillion loss to the whole world in 2025 and Nigeria lost more than $500million in 2022 alone, is what Oditah derisively lampooned the EFCC about. We have cause to be worried that those who ought to know better are either playing the Ostrich or advertising their ignorance of a major malaise confronting the nation. Owing to the threat of cybercrimes to the development of our country, the EFCC has held two national dialogues on it. The recent one held few days ago at the Presidential Villa. The Professor should know that the EFCC mandate is to investigate all financial and economic crimes and no financial crime is small or big to be investigated in order to save the soul of the nation. It should be recalled that in recent times, the EFCC had had cause to prosecute and file charges against four ex- governors and some former ministers who were found culpable by EFCC’s investigation for looting state treasuries. This is just to confirm that the Commission is not scared of taking up large- scale fraud’s investigations and prosecution which we shall continue to do

There is no denying the fact that the respected professor goofed in all his comments about the EFCC and his views are not reflective of the realities on ground concerning the anti- corruption fight of the government.

On a final note, we enjoin professor Oditah to get himself familiar with the works of the Commission and lend his expertise and rich experience to the nation for a more robust and fully- integrated war against corruption. We also want to advise the fourth estate of the realm not to allow their platforms to be used to cast unfounded aspersions on the good works of the EFCC. The Commission is not averse to meaningful contributions and advise from well- meaning and reform- minded Nigerians to strengthen our processes and procedures as we continue this crusade,

*** Dele Oyewale is Head, Media & Publicity of the EFCC.

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Ijebu Man of The Year Awards: Prince Segun Kaka Set to be Honored for Outstanding Legislative Contributions*

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**Ijebu Man of The Year Awards: Prince Segun Kaka Set to be Honored for Outstanding Legislative Contributions*

 

In a grand celebration of excellence and leadership, the Ijebu Man of The Year Awards is poised to recognize exemplary individuals who have made significant contributions to the socio-political landscape of the Ijebu community. Among the distinguished awardees this year is Prince Segun Kaka, who will receive the prestigious award for his outstanding achievements in legislation.

The ceremony, organized by the National Globe, is scheduled to take place on November 10, 2024. This annual event has become a hallmark of recognition for individuals whose efforts have positively impacted the Ijebu community and beyond. This year, the awards ceremony promises to be a star-studded affair, showcasing the achievements of notable personalities who have dedicated their lives to public service.

Prince Segun Kaka, a prominent figure in local governance, has been recognized for his unwavering commitment to legislative excellence. His contributions have been instrumental in shaping policies that address the needs and aspirations of the Ijebu people. With a reputation for integrity and dedication, Kaka has worked tirelessly to advocate for the rights of his constituents, ensuring that their voices are heard in the corridors of power.

Joining Prince Kaka in this year’s celebration are other eminent personalities, including Chief Dr. Olatokunbo Olukoua, Hon. Amos Oyebannjo Olusegun, Prince Dr. Adesegun Adelaja Adeniyi Adenuga, and Otunba Olajide Adenuga. Together, these distinguished individuals embody the spirit of leadership and service, making significant strides in various fields including education, healthcare, and community development.

The National Globe has emphasized that the awards aim not only to honor individual achievements but also to inspire the younger generation to engage in public service. “We believe that recognizing these outstanding individuals will encourage others to follow in their footsteps and make a difference in their communities,” stated a spokesperson for the organization.

As anticipation builds for the event, the local community is excited to celebrate the accomplishments of these remarkable individuals. The Ijebu Man of The Year Awards not only serve as a platform for recognition but also foster a sense of unity and pride among the people of Ijebu.

Tickets for the event are expected to sell quickly, as many wish to witness this celebration of excellence firsthand. With an impressive lineup of awardees and a commitment to highlighting the importance of community service, the Ijebu Man of The Year Awards is set to be an unforgettable occasion.

As the date approaches, the spotlight will undoubtedly shine brightly on Prince Segun Kaka and his fellow awardees, celebrating their invaluable contributions to the Ijebu community and inspiring future generations to strive for greatness in public service.

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