THERE was drama at the premises of the Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja on Monday, when operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) held a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Robert Clarke, for two hours with armed police officers in a bid to arrest his client.

The client, Funmi Ademosun, is standing trial alongside the former managing director of Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank), Francis Atuche, before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, over alleged financial impropriety in a suit filed by the EFCC.

Shortly after the case was adjourned at 12.50 p.m., EFCC operatives and armed policemen swooped on Ademosun, who was about to enter his lawyer’s car without a warrant of arrest and demanded that he should follow them to their office.

Clarke said he asked for the warrant of arrest and when they could not provide it, he told them they could not arrest his client but volunteered to drive his client down to the office of the EFCC for whatever reasons he was needed. But the EFCC operatives insisted on riding with him in his car, which he declined.

According to Clarke, the EFCC officials insisted that they must take Ademosun with them and when he resisted his client being arrested, the EFCC’s Toyota Coaster bus with registration number AJ134SBG was used to block his Black Toyota Sequoia Sports Utility Van with registration number: JED 3 EKY, from moving for more than an hour while they stated that they were awaiting further instructions from their office.

“As I was just leaving Justice Onigbanjo’s court after trial and adjournment with my client, EFCC officials together with police escorts with guns, said they wanted to forcefully remove my client inside my car, that he was being arrested. I asked them if they had warrant of arrest, they said they did not have and I said they could not arrest without a warrant of arrest.

“But they insisted that they must take him and I said I would bring him along. They also insisted that one of their orderlies should be in my car and I said no way. So, they blocked my car with police and guns all around my car.

“Right now, they said they are waiting for certain instructions. But it is so sad that within the court premises, somebody can be arrested without warrant. It beats my imagination. Something has to be done about the excesses of EFCC”, Clarke said.

The drama continued until about 2.15 p.m. when another team of armed policemen from the EFCC arrived in a white Toyota Hilux pickup with the registration number Abuja BR 728 BUR and then escorted Clarke and his client in a convoy of armed security escorts.

Earlier, the second trial instituted by EFCC against Atuche commenced with the prosecution taking its first witness, EFCC’s female detective, Nam Kappa, who told the court that she works with the Chairman’s Monitoring Unit (CMU) of the commission.

She added that they started investigation into activities at Bank PHB following a report forwarded by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to EFCC and titled: “Joint Report on Special Investigation” conducted on the bank by the CBN and the National Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC).

The prosecution also tendered nine statements made by Funmi Ademosun, Benedict Omonuha, Francis Maduka, Sola Falola and Sunny Obasi, which were admitted as exhibits before the court.

The case has been adjourned till April 23, 2012.

-Guardian

Posted by admin on Apr 18 2012. Filed under EFCC Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry