Igbo lawyers tell EFCC to obey court order, release Ubani

An association of Igbo lawyers, Otu Oka Iwu, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to obey the subsisting order of the Federal High Court and immediately release Mr. Monday Ubani and his co-applicant.

In a statement signed by the president of the law society, Chief Chuks Ikokwu, the association urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal government to take immediate steps to ensure that EFCC does not derail its avowed commitment to the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights of citizens.

It stated that it had become more pressing given the presence of many senior lawyers including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN in the Buhari administration.

“We have watched with dismay the flagrant disregard of a valid and subsisting court order and the 1999 Constitution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) led by its acting Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu,” it stated.

It would be recalled that Justice Sylvanus Orji of the Federal High Court had in a ruling on March 26, 2019, granted an ex-parte motion filed by Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) directing the EFCC to charge former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) vice president, Mr. Monday Ubani, and his co-applicant to court “on or before Friday March 28, 2019.”

The court in the alternative ordered that “If the applicants are not charged to court on or before 28/3/2019, EFCC is directed to release them on bail,” upon fulfillment of some listed conditions.

The association stated that it was a matter of deep concern and national embarrassment that the EFCC chose to brazenly disobey this order of the court, adding that it had neither charged the former NBA vice president to court nor granted him any administrative bail.

“Aside from the EFCC and its leadership being in clear breach of the extant order of the Federal High Court, the continued detention of Mr. Ubani also violates Section 35 (4) of the 1999 Constitution which provides that ‘Any person who is arrested or detained in accordance with subsection (1) (c) of this section shall be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time.’ The maximum detention period is 48 hours, except extended by a competent court. Mr. Ubani has been in EFCC custody for about three weeks.”