EFCC siege: Abuja, Kogi courts issue counter orders over Yahaya Bello

 

A federal high court in Abuja has issued an arrest warrant against Yahaya Bello, a former governor of Kogi state.

 

Emeka Nwite, the presiding judge, granted the arrest warrant to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday.

 

However, in a dramatic twist, a Kogi high court presided over by I. A Jamil has restrained the anti-graft agency from arresting the former governor.

 

In suit no HCL/68/M/2020, the court restrained the EFCC from “arresting, detaining and prosecuting the applicant except as authorised by the court”.

 

The judge said the ruling is a “definite order following the earlier interim injunction”.

 

The judgment followed the suit brought before the court by the former governor seeking to enforce his fundamental rights against the EFCC.

 

The court equally also restrained the anti-graft agency from continuing to persecute Bello.

 

Earlier in the judgment, the court dismissed the issue of jurisdiction as challenged by the EFCC.

 

S.A Abbas and M.S Yusuf, counsel to Bello, described the judgment as a landmark while T.U Odima and Patrick O. Jibril, lawyers to the EFCC, also aligned themselves to the ruling, describing it as thorough.

 

The operatives of the EFCC had laid siege on the Abuja residence of Bello on Wednesday morning.