Justice Folashade Ogunbajo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has restrained the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from declaring the chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abudulrasheed Maina wanted but the commission says it is concern about the judgment.
Justice Ogunbajo also gave an order of perpetual injunction, restraining the EFCC and its affiliates or related bodies from further declaring Maina wanted in relation to the issue of the pension scam.
The court refused to grant Maina monetary compensation in the judgment stating that the EFCC has not violated Maina’s rights.
According to EFCC, As a commission, we state that such a pronouncement amounts to a clog on the wheels of our operations in execution of our statutory duties. The judgment must not be allowed to stand because it is not only a miscarriage of justice but grossly inimical to the culture of corrupt-free society which the Commission is striving so hard to enthrone.
While the commission vowed to appeal the judgment, it stated further that it will not relent “to do all that is required within the ambit of the law in our avowed commitment to bring every Nigerian with ill-gotten wealth to justice,” the EFCC said in a statement Tuesday night.
The EFCC had in 2017 declared the chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team wanted, following his refusal to honour the commission’s invitations.
But in his bid to evade the long arm of the law, Maina, on September 5, 2018, in a suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/957/2918, asked the court to decide whether the commission can lawfully exercise powers of declaring him wanted, either on its official website or any other media platform, or harass him.
While being a fugitive, Maina was controversially reinstated into the public service and promoted. He was sacked again after an online medium exposed the reinstatement. He has since gone into hiding.
