The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an attraction by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) difficult a judgement awarding Monday Ubani, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), N12 million in compensation for his illegal detention in 2019.
Delivering judgement on the attraction on Thursday, a three-member panel of judges unanimously upheld the award.
The appellate courtroom additionally ordered the fee to pay N300,000 in prices, in keeping with a press release shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday.
Mr Ubani, a lawyer and former vice-president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), was not but a SAN when the EFCC detained him in March 2019. He attained the rank in 2024.
How the dispute started
The dispute started after the EFCC declared Ngozi Olejeme, a former chairperson of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), needed over allegations of monetary crimes referring to her time on the company.
Mr Ubani mentioned he helped persuade her to return to Nigeria to reply the allegations. She was subsequently granted administrative bail, with him and former Senator Christopher Enai standing as sureties.
A surety ensures that an individual granted bail will adjust to the situations of their launch, together with showing when required by investigators or a courtroom.
However, the EFCC later mentioned it might not attain Ms Olejeme and demanded that her sureties produce her. The fee arrested Mr Ubani and Mr Enai in March 2019.
Mr Ubani maintained that he was not liable for her disappearance. He mentioned he had helped deliver her again to Nigeria and questioned why the fee held him accountable after its operatives visited her dwelling and will not attain her.
Later that month, Judge Sylvanus Oriji of the FCT High Court in Apo ordered the EFCC to cost the 2 males in courtroom or launch them on bail. The choose additionally granted them bail topic to situations.
However, the fee didn’t adjust to the order by the deadline, prompting their lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, additionally a SAN, to provoke contempt proceedings against the then performing EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu.
In January 2022, Judge Oriji dominated that the EFCC’s arrest and detention of Mr Ubani violated his elementary rights.
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The choose held {that a} surety could possibly be required to point out trigger or forfeit the bail bond if the particular person for whom they stood surety couldn’t be produced, reasonably than being arrested and detained.
Consequently, he declared the detention unlawful and awarded Mr Ubani N12 million in damages however declined to order the EFCC to concern a public apology.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, the fee appealed to the Court of Appeal, difficult the trial courtroom’s jurisdiction and the quantity awarded as compensation.
The appellate courtroom has now dismissed the attraction and upheld the trial courtroom’s jurisdiction.
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