Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged threat to arrest, detain and prosecute him after his tenure as governor.
Mr Sanwo-Olu filed the suit through his lawyer Darlington Ozurumba before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of a Federal High Court in Abuja.
On Tuesday, Ozurumba informed the court that he had withdrawn the earlier originating summons filed and replaced it with a new one.
The lawyer said the anti-graft agency was served with the latest court documents.
However, EFCC’s counsel Hadiza Afegbua said she had not seen the documents.
Justice Abdulmalik adjourned the matter until November 11 for further mention.
In the originating summons filed on June 6, the governor raised seven questions and sought 11 reliefs.
Sanwo-Olu sought a declaration that under and by virtue of the provisions of Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, “the plaintiff, as a citizen of Nigeria, is entitled to right to private and family life as a minimum guarantee encapsulated under the Constitution of the Republic of Nigeria, 1999 before, during and after occupation of public office created by the Constitution.”
He wants the court to declare that under and by virtue of the provisions of Sections 43 and 44(1) of the 1999 Constitution, he is entitled to acquire, own, operate and manage both moveable and immovable property.
This, he said, includes bank accounts, as a minimum guarantee encapsulated under the constitution either before, during and after leaving public office of governor of a state.
He also wants the court to declare that upon community reading of the provisions of Sections 35(1) & (4) and 41(1) of the constitution, the threat of his investigation, arrest and detention by the EFCC during his tenure of office as governor is illegal.
Sanwo-Olu, 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.
He also prayed the court to make an order prohibiting and restraining the commission “from seizing the properties, the international passport and travel documents of the plaintiff or freezing the bank accounts of the plaintiff, his family members or in any other way to further breach the plaintiff’s fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.”
In the affidavit in support of the originating summons deposed to by Martha Kanu, a litigation secretary in the law firm, the lawyer said she was informed the facts by the governor at a teleconference meeting which she believed to be true.
She alleged that as a way of getting at the governor, the EFCC was now making a surreptitious plan to arrest some of his aides and family members based on the false and spurious allegations of diversion of funds.
She said the officials of the commission were now mounting pressure on some of the aides of the governor to come and make incriminating statements against him.
Kanu alleged that the anti-graft agency was also threatening to go after some contractors handling projects for the state government.
