There was mild drama on Thursday at the venue of the House of Representatives public hearing on a petition brought against the EFCC, the DSS, and the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) by a civil society organization – Justice Centre – over an alleged failed attempt by EFCC officials to abduct Godwin Emefiele from the custody of the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja after an FCT High Court had granted the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria bail.
When the petition was called up by the House Committee on Public Petitions, the correctional centre denied the allegation and aligned with the EFCC to deny the abduction plot, which was alleged to have taken place at the Kuje Prison, for which the petitioners produced pictorial evidence of the EFCC operatives laying siege to the facility.
The hearing nearly denigrated into a shouting match when the petitioners’ lawyers insisted on proving their case, but the EFCC and prison officials present kept on denying and insisting there was no such incident.
The chairman of the legislative panel, Hon. Mike Eteba, who repeatedly asked the correctional centre officials to state the truth of what transpired, was told by the correctional centre that no such thing happened while the EFCC said they had no plan to abduct Emefiele and can’t talk on the matter as the incident never happened.
The panel chairman and the committee, thereafter, ruled that since EFCC and the correctional centre had denied the allocation, Emefiele’s lawyers should proceed to the court and file contempt charges if the EFCC makes any further move or if they feel strongly that the order of the court has been violated.
The lawyers to the petitioners, while addressing journalists, insisted that the alleged attempt to forcefully abduct Emefiele from lawful custody did take place, and the organisation will pursue contempt proceedings against what it called executive rascality of the EFCC and the DSS should there be a repeat of what allegedly transpired on November 22, 2023.
The representative of CESJET, Ahmed Tijani, slammed the EFCC and the DSS over their penchant for disobedience of court orders, adding that the agencies had failed to respect several court orders granting Emefiele bail.
“We are not here to challenge the matter in court but to report the alleged attempt to forcefully remove Emefiele by EFCC from the Correctional Centre,” he stated.