Ike Ekweremadu, a former deputy senate president, claimed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was to blame for his difficulties at the London court where he is being held on Thursday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The senator, who has been detained in London as a result of an alleged scandal involving organ harvesting, testified before the Federal High Court that the anti-graft agency sent a letter to the London Court that prevented the foreign court from granting him release.
The charges made by Ekweremadu were included in an application he made to a Nigerian court, asking for permission to overturn an interim decision that had been made in favor of the Federal Government forfeiting 40 of his properties both inside and outside of Nigeria.
Ekweremadu said in the lawsuit that his lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, filed on his behalf that the Federal Government accidentally gave the forfeiture order because the EFCC kept information and facts about the assets from the government.
The jailed Senator said that the EFCC had lied to get the forfeiture ruling for the government by hiding the fact that an investigation into the 40 properties had been going on since 2008.
He said that the EFCC knew he was being held in London when they asked for the properties to be taken away, and he made other claims as well.
He said that the anti-corruption group didn’t tell the court that he was being held in London on purpose so that they couldn’t fight the request for forfeiture.
The senator consequently requested that the forfeiture order be reversed and that the case’s proceedings be put on hold until he is finished with his suffering with the London Court.
Silvanus Tahir, the EFCC’s attorney, disputed that his client was responsible for Ekweremadu’s suffering.
He did say, though, that the EFCC wrote to the London Court in response to a specific request. He also said that anti-corruption groups often share information that can help each other.
Tahir fought hard against the request to cancel the forfeiture order, but he didn’t mind when Ekweremadu asked for the case to be put on hold until the London Court could hear his case.
After hearing the arguments from the parties, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo set the date for the decision as January 11 of the following year.
The court had on Friday, November 4, ordered the temporary confiscation of 40 lands connected to Ekweremadu in several regions of the nation and abroad.
The decision was made by Justice Ekwo after an ex-parte motion was filed and brought by Ibrahim Buba, a lawyer for the EFCC.
The anti-graft agency was given a seven-day deadline by Justice Ekwo, who granted the request, to publish the interim forfeiture order for the property in a national daily.
The judge told anyone who had an interest in the forfeited property that they had 14 days after the interim forfeiture order was made public to explain why the property shouldn’t be permanently given to the federal government.
Ten properties are in Enugu, three are in the United States, two are in the United Kingdom, one is in Lagos, nine are in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and fifteen are in the Federal Capital Territory.
