Court fixes December 2 for judgment on EFCC, Fayose case

The Federal High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti has fixed December 2 this year for judgment on a case filed by Governor Ayodele Fayose against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the freezing of his personal account with Zenith Bank.

The EFCC had frozen the account following its investigation that proceeds of arms scam deal were traced to the account. But Fayose denied the allegation.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo fixed the date following the adoption of written addresses by parties involved in the suit.Fayose’s two accounts domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc in Ado-Ekiti were on June 20 this year frozen by the EFCC.

He had through his counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), approached the court for an order ordering the EFCC (first respondent) and Zenith Bank as the second respondent to immediately defreeze those account.

Ozekhome had argued that the action of the EFCC placing embargo on his client’s personal bank accounts was illegal, unconstitutional and an infringement on the fundamental rights of the applicant.

He said EFCC acted contrary to Section 308 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999 as amended, which granted immunity to a sitting governor not to be prosecuted in either civil or criminal matters.

While adopting his written address and 10-paragraph affidavit, counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that the commission acted within its statutory and constitutional power citing Section 6 (5)(b) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011.”

“By the provision of this section, the EFCC has power to instruct Zenith Bank to place ‘stop order’ on the account suspected to be proceeds of alleged crime,” he said.