CAN THE CORRUPT FIGHT CORRUPTION?

EFCC ILLEGALLY DETAINS WOMAN AFTER FAILING TO ARREST HER SON IN AKWA IBOM

On Friday, 10th November, 2020, my attention was drawn to the arrest and prolonged detention of one Mrs. Emem Emmanuel Urua, by the Uyo Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The woman’s family informed me that Mrs. Urua had been in the custody of the EFCC since the 6th of November, 2020 following the refusal by the Uyo Zonal head of the EFCC, CDCS Akpa Uchenna Edeh, to release her on administrative bail.

I went with the husband and children of Mrs. Urua to the EFCC office to secure her release. I spent over six hours at the Commission’s office before the woman was released on administrative bail.

The EFCC Zonal office in Uyo claims that their office is “investigating” a purported case of “forgery”, following a complaint lodged by one Mrs. Eno Emmanuel Effiong, who happens to be the younger sister to Mrs. Urua.

According to the EFCC, the complainant alleged that my client and her late father’s lawyer may have forged the signature of their deceased father to sell a property to a businessman in Uyo, Elder Ubong Obot, popularly known as Ubotex.

The property in question was sold by the owner before he passed on. The deceased also wrote a Will and shared his properties according to conscience. Aggrieved by the decisions taken by her deceased father, the petitioner – Eno Emmanuel Effiong, approached the court to challenge the decisions taken by her late father, whom she had a strained relationship with during the deceased lifetime.

Soon after her father died, the petitioner who barely related with the deceased while he was alive decided to fight her sole surviving sibling for the control and management of the estate of their deceased father. She has alleged that her father was not capable of entering into a contractual relationship, and that her sister took advantage of the deceased. EFCC has been dancing on the grave of the deceased by parroting this unproven allegation.

The same complainant whose bidding EFCC seems determined to satisfy without regards for the rule of law, instituted a lawsuit in Suit No: HIT/37/2017 against her elder sister and her late father’s lawyer which is currently pending before the High Court of Akwa Ibom State.

In the said lawsuit, she raised the same allegations for which the EFCC has been harassing Mrs. Urua since 2018. Mrs. Urua and the lawyer to the deceased have vehemently denied the allegations in their Statement of Defence. After filing the case in 2017, the complainant rather than await the decision of the court, went to the EFCC in 2018 in the hope that she can use the Commission to get a faster result.

The Zonal Head of the Commission in Uyo, DCDS Akpa Uchenna Edeh, and a detective, Mr. Mustapha I. Suleman, have arrogated to themselves the powers of an Investigator, Prosecutor and Judge.

What these EFCC officials have done in this case is outrageous and disgraceful. Soon after I returned to Lagos, the Zonal Head in collusion with Detective M. I. Suleman started another round of intimidation and reckless abuse of power by harassing, threatening, re-arresting and further detaining the poor woman on the illegal excuse that she failed to produce her son.

Two years after they commenced their bogus investigation, the EFCC in Uyo are suddenly insisting that my client must produce her son for them to interrogate. The said son is an adult and is not living with her mother. Yet, an agency that pretends to be fighting corruption has vowed to continue detaining the mother until she hands over her son to the Commission.

Mrs. Urua is supposed to enjoy her most recent administrative bail granted her on the 10th of November, 2020. She has been granted bail multiple times. Each time they arrest her, they will impose fresh, difficult and malicious bail conditions on her.

After re-arresting her on the 6th of November, 2020, they carried out the same ungodly ritual by demanding a fresh surety who they insisted must be a senior civil servant. They refused to allow her husband to stand as her surety. The family was able to get a credible surety who is both a senior civil servant and a pastor to stand as her surety.

When they finally released her on bail following my intervention on the 10th of November, 2020, the Zonal head and his subordinates started threatening and harassing her again to bring her son to their office. They also harassed the woman’s surety to produce the said son.

She honoured their invitation again on Wednesday 24th November, 2020 only to be re-arrested (yet again) and detained until she produces her son, in clear contravention of Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 which prohibits arresting anyone in place of another.

If the EFCC in Uyo is confident about the so-called case of forgery that they pretend to be investigating, why have they not filed criminal charges for the past two years? Why are they acting as if they are surrogates of the petitioner, who instead of proving her pending case in court, is using EFCC to persecute her elder sister?

This is nothing but an abuse of power. It is another example of how EFCC has been corruptly used as a tool for witch-hunting people. An agency that was established to fight corruption should avoid corruption. The corrupt cannot fight corruption.

The allegation of forgery is spurious, frivolous and malicious. It is neither backed by credible evidence nor substantiated by verifiable facts. The so-called investigation is animated by a ludicrous fabrication. EFCC was not set-up to settle personal scores or family disputes.

Since 2018, EFCC in Uyo has been engaging in a fishing expedition in their desperation to invent non-existent evidence to nail Mrs. Urua to satisfy the cravings of the petitioner whom they have openly and unprofessionally taken sides with.

The Uyo Zonal office of the EFCC has invited, re-invited, arrested, re-arrested, detained and threatened Mrs. Urua multiple times since 2018.

Rather than take a decent path, the EFCC in Uyo has persisted in their illegality and impunity because they believe that Nigeria is a jungle where the rule of law is useless. It is scandalous that an agency that was set-up to fight corruption has deployed a corrupt modus operandi in this case to intimidate a poor woman in the most irresponsible manner.

As a lawyer, I have always avoided taking up cases against the EFCC. Rather, it has been my policy to give support to the Commission within my limited capacity. I have always declined participation in corruption cases because I truly believe that the EFCC should be supported by public interest lawyers. The case of Mrs. Urua happens to be the first time that I have opposed the EFCC in a professional capacity.

If my experience in this particular case is a reflection of the modus operandi of the Commission, then every public interest lawyer has a responsibility to stand up and save the EFCC from self-destruction.

We will never surrender to agents of impunity. We cannot claim to be a democratic country when people like the Zonal head of the EFCC in Uyo keeps making nonsense of the constitutional rights of citizens in the guise of fighting corruption. Corruption cannot be fought outside the law.

While legal options are being explored to seek redress for this brazen human rights violation, I call on the Acting Chairman of the EFCC to urgently call DCDS Uchenna Edeh to order and stop him from further exposing the Commission and Nigeria to embarrassment.

For every additional second that Mrs. Urua spends in unlawful custody, the credibility of the EFCC will continue to evaporate.

Her constitutional right to presumption of innocence should be respected. I demand for her immediate and unconditional release.

INIBEHE EFFIONG ESQ.

"Iron sharpeneth iron"