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• Cautions magistrates
Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has described the remand order reportedly granted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to detain a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, indefinitely as a show of judicial rascality.
The governor said: “It is worrisome that some court magistrates, especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have turned themselves into allies of the EFCC in its persecution of Nigerians who are opposed to President Mohammadu Buhari’s anti-people policies.”
The governor, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, cautioned court magistrates, especially those in Abuja, against the continuous disobedience to the directive of the Chief Judge of the FCT, Justice Ishaq Bello that they should desist from granting remand orders to the EFCC to detain suspects indefinitely, saying: “It now appears that these magistrates are operating as if they are superior to the FCT Chief Judge.”
Justice Bello had, during his visit to the Keffi Medium Prison in Keffi, Nasarawa State, said: “I understand that EFCC has been bringing
some cases to you and you have been granting them remand orders. You must no longer do this from today.
“It is obvious that the EFCC is either corrupting the magistrates to obtain the remand orders or they are being blackmailed and coerced by the anti-corruption agency.”
Fayose added: “In saner climes, anti-corruption agencies don’t go about arresting suspects, detaining them arbitrarily and coercing them to make statements implicating themselves. Rather, anti-corruption agencies must have gotten all they needed to prosecute a suspect before arresting him.
“It is even more questionable that the court order secured by the EFCC to detain Fani-Kayode indefinitely was gotten barely 24 hours after the former minister was granted administrative bail by the same EFCC.
“How can someone be granted administrative bail and while he was trying to meet the bail conditions, the EFCC clandestinely rushed to a magistrate court to secure an order to detain him indefinitely? Isn’t that a clear show of executive rascality?”
