EFCC rejects bail for Fayose’s ally

The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission said on Thursday that it
would “immediately” appeal the ruling
of a Federal Capital Territory High
Court which granted bail to Abiodun
Agbele, an ally of Governor Ayodele
Fayose.
The court on Thursday reached the
conclusion that the EFCC unlawfully
held Mr. Agbele, who is under
investigation in connection with
alleged fraud and money laundering.
The judge, Olukayode Adeniyi,
frowned at the “unlawful detention”
without trial and also awarded N5
million as damages against the
commission.
The judge said the failure of the EFCC
to charge Mr. Agbele to court, since his
arrest, amounted to an abuse of his
fundamental rights.
The commission’s head of media and
publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, in a
statement on Thursday, described the
ruling as “shocking”, vowing to appeal
the judgment.
He described the judge’s conclusion as
“curious” against the background of
the information presented to the court,
which included the fact that the
suspect was being held with valid
remand warrants issued by competent
courts.
The EFCC also said it would file a
motion for a stay of execution of the
ruling.
The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Fayose,
described the commission’s decision to
appeal the judgment as a clear
demonstration of the anti-corruption
agency’s “wickedness and show of
vendetta” against the governor.
A statement by Mr. Fayose’s Special Assistant on
Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, on Thursday, said it was curious that for
the first time, EFCC was appealing against a
judgment that merely enforced the fundamental
rights of Mr. Agbele by granting him bail in
accordance with the laws of the country.
“It is now obvious that all that the EFCC desired is to
incarcerate Mr Agbele indefinitely just because he is
linked with Governor Fayose, who the EFCC and its
APC collaborators desired to silence at all cost,” the
statement said.
The statement further noted that that the action of
the commission showed that Mr. Fayose was their
actual target.
“We wonder the sense in keeping an accused in
EFCC custody indefinitely while the anti-corruption
agency goes about looking for evidences to prosecute
him,” the statement queried.
“If the EFCC is sure of the evidences that it claimed
to have, what is the need for keeping Mr Agbele in
detention? Why not take him to court?
“And what interest is the EFCC serving by standing
against a court ruling that granted conditional bail to
an accused person?

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