Citizen Emenike vs EFCC

Over 10 years ago, Chief Ikechi Emenike, the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Alliance for Abia State, took up residence at No. 6 Aso Drive, in the highbrow Maitama District of Abuja. At that time no one, certainly not the chief, knew that the property would be discovered later by the Economic and Financial […]

Over 10 years ago, Chief Ikechi Emenike, the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Alliance for Abia State, took up residence at No. 6 Aso Drive, in the highbrow Maitama District of Abuja. At that time no one, certainly not the chief, knew that the property would be discovered later by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to have been a proceed of fraud by Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, the disgraced former Minister of Petroleum in President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet. So, for over four years Emenike paid his rent for the property to its ostensible landlord’s agent.

When eventually the Commission established Mrs. Allison-Madueke’s ownership of the property and convinced the courts to forfeit it to the federal government, it wrote Emenike and instructed him to stop payment to the old landlord and instead pay to an agent it had appointed as its rent collector. Emenike duly complied and paid rent to the EFCC for six years.

Subsequently, the Commission advertised the property for sale, among other forfeited properties. Emenike applied to buy it, based on the principle of the right of first refusal as stipulated by the EFCC Act guiding the sale of forfeited assets. He even met with the then Chairman of the Commission, Mr. AbdulRasheed Bawa, who agreed in principle to consider his application, pending the final valuation of the property.

However, several months after this meeting, the Commission wrote Emenike to say the property was no longer for sale. Instead, it has, it said, decided to reserve it for use by its chairman or for public use, quite contrary to the Assets Forfeiture Act which precluded the Commission from reserving any forfeited property for itself or any of its officials.

This led Emenike to approach the courts for redress. The FCT High Court, presided over by Hon. Justice Hussaini Musa, which heard his case ruled in his favour. EFCC is yet to appeal the judgement. Instead, in what was clearly a legal sleight of hand, it surreptitiously went to a Federal High Court, under Hon. Justice M.S Liman and secured an exparte order forcefully siezing the property.

Dissatisfied, Emenike went back to the same court and succeeded in convincing it with documentary evidence that EFCC obtained the order against him through deceit and concealment of facts of a subsisting judgement of Hon. Justice Hussaini Musa as well as pending appeal at the Court of Appeal. Subsequently, the presumably angry Judge issued a “mandatory order of injunction…restoring the applicant/tenant to No. 6 Aso Drive, Abuja, from where he was ejected…”

Since that judgement, twice at least, the Court’s bailiffs have gone to the sealed property to enforce its order and twice the EFCC officials keeping guard over it have resisted the bailiffs and even threatened to shoot them.

Emenike is a citizen of Nigeria whose rights are clearly being trampled upon by EFCC. But the man is no ordinary citizen. Long before he contested for the governorship of Abia State on the ticket of the ruling APC, he had played a quiet but prominent role in bringing about the Buhari/Tinubu alliance that led to the historic defeat of a sitting president in the 2015 General Election. Possibly as a result of that, his wife, Uzoma, who had retired as a senior career diplomat, was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the country’s ambassador to Ireland. Her record of performance led to her elevation as the first female Nigerian ambassador to the United States where she served two tours and in which she acquitted herself well.

She has since returned home after her recall at the end of her final tour. However, because of the dubious eviction of her husband from his rented property in Abuja where he has lived for more than 10 years, she has not been able to join him and settle down to enjoy her retirement.

If a prominent citizen like Emenike can be treated so shabbily and unfairly by EFCC, is it any wonder that the public perception of the Commission as an effective weapon against corruption has been rather mixed in spite of its many successes in carrying out its mandate?

It is, of course, never too late for the Commission to turn its relatively poor image around, especially now that it has a new Chairman who is a senior lawyer and a senior pastor of his Church. Obeying court orders or, in the alternative, appealing against them, where the Commission is dissatisfied, is one way the Chairman, Mr. Olu Olukoyede, can begin the long journey to its redemption in the public eye.

So, the lawful step open to the EFCC is either to offer Emenike the Right of First Refusal as ordered by the courts or to vacate his gate and allow him unfettered stay in the property pending final appeals. Sustaining current impunity or trying to criminalize this purely civil matter is wrong headed.  

Awe is based in Abuja