The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been accused of trampling on the fundamental human rights of detained former spokesperson of President Goodluck Jonatha, Femi Fani-Kayode.

The anti-graft agency is alleged to have today, sneaked Fani-Kayode into an Ikeja magistrate court where they obtained a ‘shady’ warrant to keep him in custody for 3 more weeks despite being served court notices for the enforcement of fundamental human rights suit filed at an Abuja Federal High Court by the incarcerated Fani-Kayode since Friday, May 20.

According to a statement issued by Fani-Kayode’s spokesperson, Jude Ndukwe the former presidentoial spokesperson was secretly whisked to Lagos from Abuja on Thursday, May 19 and taken to an Ikeja Magistrate court this morning where the remand warrant was gotten under shady circumstances.

Jude Ndukwe noted that the actions of the EFCC against Fani-Kayode is “a gross abuse of court processes and a denial of his fundamental human rights. It is even most shocking that EFCC attempted to take him to the magistrate court without notifying his lawyers or family members. His lawyers had to go from court to court in Lagos searching for venue of the court proceedings before they eventually traced it to Ikeja.”

Ndukwe decried the lawlessness of the anti-graft agency while lamenting that “This type of treatment to any citizen of our nation especially in a democratic era is, to say the least, inhuman.”

He continued, “One wonders why a case already before a High Court was entertained in a magistrate court, and judgement given immediately.

“This smacks of nothing but vendetta. EFCC have no reasonable cause to continue to keep Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in their custody beyond the constitutional provision of 48 hours. He is not known to have either attempted to evade arrest nor resisted same. EFCC have since concluded their investigations by the virtue of details of the case they leaked out to the public through the press. So, they have no reason to keep having him in their custody without taking the noble option of charging him to court, after all, they have already kept him with them long enough.

“As an organisation that prides itself as a constitutionally responsible one, it is expected that holding a citizen endlessly would not be part of EFCC’s operations. If they have anything against Chief Fani-Kayode, one expects that they should charge him to court rather than obtaining contentious remand warrants from one court to the other.”

A previous warrant which the EFCC obtained against Fani-Kayode for 2 weeks had since elapsed- an apparent reason why the anti-graft agency had to request for another in a Lagos Magistrate court.

Ndukwe noted that, “This latest action by EFCC has confirmed rumours making the rounds that the federal government wants to give the former Minister of Aviation the Dasuki/Naamdi Kanu treatment, a treatment alien to our laws but is fast becoming the norm under the current administration.

“The question now is, with this naked abuse of our constitution, who is next, and for how long will this continue?”

Fani-Kayode was arrested by the EFCC on Monday, May 9 after he honoured an invitation to the commission’s office dated Friday, May 6 to come in and explain his involvement in an alleged N2.5 billion illegally withdrawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria.