By Taiye Agbaje
THE FEDERAL High Court in Abuja has struck out the fundamental right enforcement suit filed by Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik struck out the matter after counsel who appeared for Sanwo-Olu, Gbenga Femi Akande, moved the motion for the discontinuance of the case.
Justice Abdulmalik had, on Oct. 29, fixed Nov. 26 (today) for further mention following the submission of the EFCC’s lawyer, Hadiza Afegbua, that she was yet to see the fresh originating summons served on them by Darlington Ozurumba, who filed the suit on the governor’s behalf.
However, NAN observed that the matter was not listed on today’s case list and no governor’s lawyer was in court.
Out of the 10 cases scheduled for hearing before Justice Abdulmalik, the suit number: FHC/ABJ/CS/773/2024 between Babajide Sanwo-Olu and EFCC was not on the Tuesday cause list.
When the reporter asked the court workers on why the matter was not listed, NAN leant that the case had been struck out on Oct. 31 after it was withdrawn.
Meanwhile, there was a mild drama as the EFCC lawyer, Afegbua, was sighted in court for the matter.
The anti-graft counsel, who had been appearing in the matter, was disappointed to see that the case was not on the cause list. Besides, she was taken aback when she was informed that the suit had been struck out on Oct. 31.
Afegbua, who refused to speak with newsmen, left the court in disappointment.
However, the enrolled order made on Oct. 31 sighted by NAN, showed that only the plaintiff’s lawyer, Akande, was in the proceeding, leading to the striking out of the case.
Again, while the notice of discontinuance of the suit was dated and filed on Oct. 30, the hearing notice issued to parties for the Nov. 26 (today’s) sitting was equally dated Oct. 30.
Sanwo-Olu, through his counsel, Ozurumba, had sued the anti-graft agency as sole defendant over alleged threat to arrest, detain and prosecute him after his tenure as governor.
In the originating summons, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/773/2024 dated and filed on June 6, the governor raised seven questions and sought 11 reliefs.
He, therefore, sought an order restraining the EFCC from harassing, intimidating, arresting, detaining, interrogating or prosecuting him in connection with his tenure as the governor of Lagos State, among others.
But the EFCC, in its counter affidavit, urged the court not to grant the reliefs sought by Gov. Sanwo-Olu, describing it as speculative.
The anti-corruption agency, in the application dated Oct. 30 but filed Oct. 31 by its lawyer, Afegbua, said contrary to the governor’s claims, the EFCC neither threatened, invited or took any step at all to encroach on his right to freedom of movement nor violated his right to private and family life and personal liberty. (NAN)
