Efforts made by Governor Ayodele Fayose to reverse the restriction order
placed on his accounts frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission(EFCC) in Zenith Bank Plc was temporarily halted on Tuesday as
the Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, deferred ruling on the
mandatory order being sought to reverse the directive.
The EFCC had last week Tuesday allegedly frozen Fayose’s account numbers
1003126654 and 9013074033 in Zenith bank for alleged money laundering
running into N1.2 billion being money allegedly taken from the $2.1
billion arms fund in the office of the former National Security Adviser,
Col. Bello Dasuki.
Fayose through his lawyer , Mr Mike Ozekhome(SAN), had through an ex
parte order deposed to on the 24th of June, 2016 by Bimpe Olatemiju
sought a mandatory order unfreezing the accounts belonging and operated
by him pending the determination of his interlocutory application.
Joined in the suit are the EFCC (1st defendant) and Zenith bank (2nd
defendant).The order was supported by 18-paragraph affidavit , a lone
Exhibit, which was a letter issued to Governor Fayose by Zenith bank
confirming that the EFCC actually placed a restriction order on the
accounts and a written address.
He also sought the leave of the court for the service of the originating
summons on the defendants in their various addresses outside the
jurisdiction of the court as contained on the order papers, supported by
17-paragraph affidavit.
Ozekhome said the order was brought pursuant to order 26 rule 8(1) of
the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rule 2009 and Section 44(1) of
the 1999 constitution which gives the court the discretionary powers to
adjudicate on such matter.
Citing the case of Abdulaziz Nyako Vs EFCC to buttress his position that
the anti-graft agency has no power to freeze Fayose’s account without
valid court order, Ozekhome added that the action was a flagrant
negation of the Section 308 of the constitution, which conferred
absolute immunity on the government against civil and criminal
procedure.