There was a mild drama at the venue of the House of Representatives public hearing on Thursday on a petition brought against EFCC, DSS and Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), by a civil society organisation (CSO), Justice Center, over alleged failed attempt by EFCC officials to abduct former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, from the custody of the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja after an FCT High Court granted him bail.
When the petition was called up by the House Committee on Public Petitions, the Correctional Center denied the allegation and aligned with EFCC to deny the abduction plot, which was alleged to have taken place at the Kuje Prison, for which the petitioners produced picture evidence of the EFCC operatives laying siege to the facility.
The hearing nearly denigrated into a shouting match when the petitioners’ lawyers insisted on proving their case, but the EFCC and Prison officials present kept on denying and insisting there was no such incident.
The chairman of the legislative panel, Hon. Mike Eteba, who repeatedly asked the correctional center officials to state the truth of what transpired, was told by the correctional center that no such thing happened while the EFCC said they had no plan to abduct Emefiele and can’t talk on the matter as the incident never happened.
The panel chairman and the committee, thereafter, ruled that since EFCC and the correctional center had denied the allocation, the lawyers to the former CBN Governor should proceed to the court and file contempt charges if the EFCC make any further move or if they feel strongly that the order of the court has been violated.
The lawyers to the petitioners while addressing journalists insisted that the alleged attempt to forcefully abduct Mr. Emefiele from lawful custody did take place, and the organisation will pursue contempt proceedings against what it called executive rascality of EFCC and DSS should there be a repeat of illegality of November 22, 2023.
The representative of CESJET, Mr Ahmed Tijani, slammed the EFCC and DSS over their penchant for disobedience to court order, adding that the agencies had failed to respect several orders of courts granting Emefiele bail.
“We are not here to challenge the matter in court but to report the alleged attempt to forcefully remove Emefiele by EFCC from the Correctional Centre,” he stated.
