BEVERLY HILLS, June 20, (THEWILL) – Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has secured another judicial victory against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his accounts domiciled at the Zenith Bank which was frozen last year.
This is because the Court of Appeal sitting in Ado Ekiti, on Tuesday, threw out an application by the anti-graft agency against an injunction restraining it from freezing the bank account operated by the governor with Zenith Bank.
THEWILL recalls that the account was frozen in June, last year, over allegations that it contained a sum of N2.999 billion out of the 3.2 billion dollars suspected to have been distributed through the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) of the ‘dasuki-gate’ fame.
But the account was unfrozen in December, last year, on the orders of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti, which ordered the anti-graft agency to unfreeze the governor’s account
Dis-satisfied, the EFCC filed an appeal against the judgment on grounds that the money in the account was a proceed of crime.
In its ruling, the Appeal Court in panel, comprising Justices Ahmad Belgore, Fatima Akinbami and Paul Elechi, in a unanimous judgment held that that the EFCC did not attach notice of appeal and also failed to show sufficient evidence that the money in the account was a proceed of crime as claimed.
“EFCC also failed to show sufficient evidence that the money in the account was a proceed of crime as claimed. In doing this, we expect the EFCC to have showed evidence that the plaintiff has been tried for criminal offence before for it to assume that he can receive proceed of crime, the Court ruled in the judgement read by Justice Akinbami.
“We also found that there was suppression of facts to get the account frozen in the first instance. It was also noted that Governor Fayose in line with Section 308 enjoys immunity and his personal account can’t be frozen.
“Having not done all these as demanded by law and equity, as those facts were facts that would assist in exercising the court’s discretion either for or against as it is an application that is predicated on discretion of the court. The application is hereby thrown out.”
The court also said that the alleged damning intelligent report by the EFCC, which it claimed to have received concerning money purportedly paid into Governor Fayose’s account by Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was not provided nor attached for the court to see saying “the court does not embark on speculation.”
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