The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has not been able to prosecute of former governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, five years after it filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Port
Harcourt because efforts to execute the appeal have not produced any results so far.
It would be recalled that Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court in Abuja Division had barred the EFCC from arresting and prosecuting Odili over a N189 million credit facility given him by the then troubled Finbank Plc. The court also restrained the anti-graft body and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or any of their agents from confiscating Odili’s property in any part of the world for the purpose of realising any security for the indebtedness to the bank.
But the Chief of Staff to EFCC chairman, Kayode Oladele, while addressing journalists at a workshop in Lagos on Monday said the agency did its best by appealing against the perpetual injunction but has since been blocked from proceeding because no date has been fixed for hearing by the Port Harcourt court.
“Immediately the permanent order was given, we quickly appealed it at the Appeal Court, Port Harcourt Division. But five years after filing the appeal, we have not been given a hearing date. We feel that any case that involves public interest as such shouldn’t have been so treated by the court. In a case that involves corruption, how can you grant a permanent injunction? It is as if someone is being shielded from prosecution,” Oladele said.
“This is a regime of rule of law and everything has to be done in accordance with the law of the land,” Oladele said.
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