Despite having been served court notices for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, today ,took former Aviation minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode into an Ikeja magistrate court where they obtained a warrant to keep him in their custody for another three weeks, even though the anti graft agency requested for a thirty-day remand warrant.
247ureports.om gathered that 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 the detained former minister was whisked away to Lagos last Thursday where he was taken to an Ikeja Magistrate court today with the EFCC requestingto 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 judgment 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 or 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 organization 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, Fani Kayode’s media aide, Jude Ndukwe, said.
It will be recalled that EFCC had earlier obtained a similar remand warrant in Abuja to keep Fani Kayode for two weeks which has since elapsed.
According to Ndukwe, “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/and Nnamdi 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?”
