Abuja court orders EFCC to pay N10m to Austrian

For at least the third time in 2016, a Federal High Court has awarded damages of up to N10 million against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for unlawfully detaining suspects who are under investigation.

Since the advent of the All Progressives Congress led government and its feverish war against corruption, the EFCC has assumed a somewhat gestapo-like stance, arresting and detaining people who are suspected to be involved in anti-graft activities.

These arrests and incarcerations are sometimes carried out in violation of the fundamental human rights of the suspects – case in point, the ruling of the Abuja High Court in the case of an Abuja based foreigner and security expert, Wolgang Reinl who was detained by the agency and had his international passport seized.

The Abuja court awarded damages of N10 million against EFCC as compensation for the violation of fundamental rights of Wolgang Reinl to dignity of human person and personal liberty.

Wolgang Reinl was arrested and detained by the EFCC on December 12, 2015 till February 2, 2016 when he was released.

To this effect, Justice Peter Affen ordered the EFCC to relinquish the international passport, cheque books and cell phones seized from him following his arrest while also ruling that he should be de-listed from all no-fly lists as any restriction would amount to a violation of his right to freedom.

The court stated that the actions of the EFCC is a gross violation of the plaintiff’s fundamental right to dignity as enshrined in Section 34 and 35 of the 1999 Constitution.

In a similar happenstance, the EFCC was ordered to pay Uche Secondus a total sum of N10 million for illegally arresting and detaining him in March, 2015.

If the trend of illegal arrests by the EFCC is allowed to fester and continue, Nigerians would continue to lose faith in the sincerity of the present government’s rumored fight against corruption.

It is unclear if it is an utter lack of professionalism that plagues the anti-graft agency in its incessant illegal arrests and detentions or an acute sense of responsibility to champion the anti-corruption war- even if the innocent suffer and perish during the crusade.

Justice Affen had said during the ruling: “It cannot be over-emphasized that law enforcing agencies must operate within the confines of the laws they are required to enforce in order to make law enforcement more effective and effectual”.

“Law enforcers must observe and ensure the observance of ‘the law behind the law’ by demonstrating a moral commitment to the very laws they are required to enforce, for without such moral commitment to the law ‘who will guard the guard, and who will police the police.’

“Any failure or neglect by them to observe that timelines and safeguards may constitute an infraction of rights guaranteed and protected by the constitution which the supreme law of the land and from which other laws derived their validity.”

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