The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday obtained a court order to keep former Director Publicity to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, in custody for another three weeks.
The anti-graft agency is probing Fani-kayode over N840 million released to him by the former Chief Security adviser Sambo Dasuki for the prosecution of Jonathan’s presidential campaign publicity.
The former director, who was a minister of Aviation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, claims he he was unaware that the money made available to him to prosecute the publicity campaign came from government cffers.
Details of the remand order were not available to The Rainbow, but a statement by Jude Ndukwe, SA Media to Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, reads,
“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 judgement 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?”
