A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, convicted the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, for contempt of court.
The Court specifically directed the Inspector General of Police to ensure that the order of the court to keep Bawa in Kuje Correctional Centre is executed without delay.
Bawa was convicted by the Court owing to the failure of the EFCC under Abdulrasheed Bawa to comply with an earlier order of the Court to return to a defendant, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Rufus Adeniyi Ojuawo, his Range Rover Sport (Supercharged) and N40 million.
The EFCC had arraigned Ojuawo, a former Director of Operations with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), on a two-count charge before Justice Muawiyah Baba Idris of the High Court of the FCT in Nyanya, in 2016.
The former Air Force Chief was accused of receiving N40 million and a Range Rover Sport from one Hima Aboubakar of Societe D’Equipment Internationaux Nigeria Limited.
However, Ojuawo, in a suit filed by his lawyer, R.N. Ojabo, said that the EFCC declined to comply with the order of the Court for the release of his seized property in a judgment delivered on November 21, 2018.
Ruling on the matter on Tuesday, Justice Chizoba Orji, declared that “the Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is in contempt of the orders of this honourable court made on November 21st 2018, directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja to return to the applicant his Range Rover (Supercharge) and the sum of N40, 000,000.00 (Forty Million Naira).
Justice Orji further ruled; “Having continued wilfully in disobedience to the order of this court, he should be committed to prison at Kuje Correctional Centre for his disobedience, and continued disobedience of the said order of court made on November 21st, 2018, until he purges himself of the contempt.
“The Inspector General of Police shall ensure that the order of this honourable court is executed forthwith,” Justice Orji directed.
