The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday set aside the contempt proceedings and all the orders of conviction for contempt against the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Justice Chizoba Oji’s ruling followed an application brought by Bawa.
The application was brought pursuant to Section 6(6) (a) and Section 36(1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Section 91 of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act, Cap S6 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004 and other relevant enactments.
The court found that at the time of the order Bawa was not in contempt of court as he had complied with the order that the respondent’s Range Rover be released and by several internal memoranda, the applicant had initiated the commission’s internal mechanism to ensure the payment of the sum of N40 million to the respondent.
In a ruling delivered on October 28, and made available to journalists on Tuesday, Bawa was convicted of contempt of court in relation to the failure of the anti-graft agency to comply with a November 21, 2018 court order directing it to return a Range Rover and the sum of N40 million to the applicant in a suit.
The ruling was delivered on a motion on notice filed by a one-time director of operations at the Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Rufus Ojuawo.
Ojuawo had filed a motion through his lawyer, R.N. Ojabo, in a suit marked: FCT/HC/CR/184/2016 that the EFCC had refused to comply with the court order directing it to release his seized property.
