Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele
Fayose has slammed an N20 billion suit on the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) for placing him on a watchlist and directing that he should
be arrested if he attempts to travel out of the country despite being a sitting
governor conferred with constitutional immunity against any criminal
proceedings.
He said that the EFCC’s order did
not only breach his constitutional immunity but that it also exposed him to
public opium and ridicule, adding that directing that he should be arrested was
anathema to the laws of the land.
In a letter by his counsel, Obafemi
Adewale, dated September 3, 2018, the governor had given EFCC 72 hours to
withdraw the request/directive to Security Agencies to place him on security
watchlist and publish a written apology to all security agencies in Nigeria,
three National Newspapers and the Social Media.
Special Assistant to the Governor
on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said in a statement
issued on Tuesday, that consequent upon EFCC failure to accede to his demands
as contained in the letter, Governor Fayose’s counsel filed the suit number
FHC/ABJ/CS/1087/2018 in Abuja last Friday.
It should be recalled that EFCC
had tweeted on July 16, 2018 through its official Twitter handle @officialEFCC
concerning Governor Fayose
that, “The parri is over, the
cloak of immunity is torn apart and the staff broken, Ekiti Integrated
Poultry/Biological Concepts Limited N1.3bn fraud case file dusted off the
shelves. See you soon.”
In the suit, Governor Fayose is
seeking among other things; an order of the court mandating the EFCC to pay the
sum of N20 billion as general damages to him for what he called “flagrant,
deliberate, pre-meditated and reckless libel and unprovoked attack on his
character and reputation
and the breach of his
constitutional right/immunity as an incumbent Governor.”
He demanded that the EFCC should
tender a written apology, which should be circulated to all security agencies
in Nigeria and same
should be published in at least
three widely read National Newspapers and through the social media.
The governor is also seeking a
declaration that the statements contained in the EFCC letter dated September
12, 2018, and addressed to all security agencies in Nigeria portrayed him as a
criminal, a fugitive and a run-away from the law, and that the statements are not
true, are malicious, are not fair
statements.
He wants the court to further
declare; “that the EFCC letter placing him on watchlist and directing his
arrest on sight even while a sitting Governor is unconstitutional as same
offends the clear provision of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which clothes him with immunity
against arrest and prosecution as an incumbent Governor.”
“That the tweet by the Defendant
(EFCC) through its official Twitter handle, which was widely circulated through
social media and published
on Punch Newspaper (online) of
16th July, 2018, with the particulars wordings pleaded in the Statement of
Claim filed along with this Writ is not true, is malicious, is not a fair
statement and presents the Plaintiff as a fraudster thereby ridiculing him and
reducing him in the eyes of reasonable and right-thinking members of the
society.”
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