Court vacates order asking IGP to arrest EFCC Chairman
The Federal High Court sitting at the Federal Capital Territory has vacated the order directing the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to arrest Ola Olukoyede, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman.
Justice Abubakar Hussaini Musa of the court on Thursday, January 25, reversed the order to arrest Olukoyede for disobeying the court’s ruling that the operatives of the EFCC leave a property at Number 6, Aso Drive, Abuja.
In a tweet by the anti-graft agency on Thursday, the EFCC said the court upheld the position of its Lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) , Rotimi Oyedepo, that Olukoyode’s commitment was to move “the EFCC towards enhanced professionalism and accountable conducts, could not have willfully ignored or disobeyed the order of the court.”
Oyedepo posited that Olukoyede, a legal practitioner, might not have disobeyed the court order intentionally.
He then urged the court to vacate the order, adding that issues involving the parties in the case would be resolved amicably. Justice Musa of the federal high court in Abuja, in his ruling, said: “I knew that the EFCC Chairman was unaware of this; that is why I want the Chairman to come.”
The court subsequently vacated the matter and freed the EFCC chairman of contempt of court. It further adjourned the case to February 7 for the hearing of a substantive suit.
