Mike Ozekhome (SAN), lawyer to a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, has raised the alarm that the anti-graft agency was still holding him in detention despite meeting his bail conditions.
Ozekhome raised the alarm in a statement on Thursday.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court had granted Adoke bail in the case filed against him by the EFCC.
Ozekhome said in the statement: “It is disheartening that despite meeting the bail conditions imposed by the court, since the 30th of January 2020, the EFCC is still holding our client in permanent custody, till date.
“This has further jeopardised his very poor and fragile health. The court had actually taken Adoke’s ill health into consideration in making the order for his release, with certain bail conditions.
“From the foregoing, it is crystal clear to any discerning observer that our client is no more being prosecuted, but is being persecuted, by the EFCC, which has, by this singular act, now constituted itself into an institution that acts above courts of law.
“It now deploys unbridled powers to choose and/or decide (as in this particular case), whether or not to obey valid and extant orders made by courts of competent jurisdiction.”
Ozekhome said the development is unhealthy for the nation’s democracy and constitutes an unnecessary invitation to chaos and anarchy.
He added that after meeting the bail conditions, the EFCC came up with other reasons why it could not release Adoke.
He said: “It was either that one official or the other, was not available to authorise the release and, so Adoke continues to languish in illegal detention. As of today, 6th February 2020 (and still counting), over seven clear days after the court granted Adoke bail, the EFCC continues to detain him.
“Notwithstanding our client’s fulfilment of his bail conditions, he has been kept by the Respondent in horrific detention, in blatant defiance of the court’s clear and mandatory order for his release on bail.”
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