Read the press statement by the SA Media to Chief Femi
Fani-Kayode below…
Despite having been
served court notices for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights, the
EFCC today sneaked Chief Femi Fani-Kayode into an Ikeja magistrate court where
they obtained a highly contentious warrant to keep him in their custody for
another three weeks even though EFCC requested for a thirty-day remand warrant.
Chief Fani-Kayode's
lawyers had served the EFCC the court notices from a Federal High Court in
Abuja on Friday, 20th of May, 2016, but to our consternation he was whisked to
Lagos last Thursday and taken to an Ikeja Magistrate court this morning where
they applied to keep him for another thirty days.
This is a gross abuse
of court processes and a denial of his fundamental human rights. It is even
most shocking that EFCC attempted to take him to the magistrate court without
notifying his lawyers or family members. His lawyers had to go from court to
court in Lagos searching for venue of the court proceedings before they
eventually traced it to Ikeja.
This type of
treatment to any citizen of our nation especially in a democratic era is, to
say the least, inhuman.
One wonders why a
case already before a High Court was entertained in a magistrate court, and judgment
given immediately.
This smacks of
nothing but vendetta. EFCC have no reasonable cause to continue to keep Chief
Femi Fani-Kayode in their custody beyond the constitutional provision of 48
hours. He is not known to have either attempted to evade arrest nor resisted
same. EFCC have since concluded their investigations by the virtue of details
of the case they leaked out to the public through the press. So, they have no
reason to keep having him in their custody without taking the noble option of
charging him to court, after all, they have already kept him with them long
enough.
As an organisation
that prides itself as a constitutionally responsible one, it is expected that
holding a citizen endlessly would not be part of EFCC's operations. If they
have anything against Chief Fani-Kayode, one expects that they should charge
him to court rather than obtaining contentious remand warrants from one court
to the other.
Recall that EFCC had
earlier obtained a similar remand warrant in Abuja to keep him for two weeks
which has since elapsed.
This latest action by
EFCC has confirmed rumours making the rounds that the federal government wants
to give the former Minister of Aviation the Dasuki/Naamdi Kanu treatment, a
treatment alien to our laws but is fast becoming the norm under the current
administration.
The question now is,
with this naked abuse of our constitution, who is next, and for how long will
this continue?
Jude Ndukwe
SA Media to Chief
Femi Fani-Kayode
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