The Kogi State High Court has jailed Abdulrasheed Bawa, the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for defying a court order. The arrest of Abdulrasheed Bawa has recently drawn a lot of attention.
Since February 24th, 2021, Abdulrasheed Bawa has served as the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a law enforcement agency in Nigeria.
He took over as the commission’s chairman in lieu of acting chairman Umar Mohammed Abba. Prior to being appointed, he was the Deputy Chief Superintendent of the anti-corruption organization.
Bawa was proposed on February 16, 2021, to serve as the actual Chairman of the EFCC.
Additionally, the National Assembly officially installed Bawa as the Executive Chairman on February 24, 2021, displacing Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the previous interim Chairman of the Commission.
Bawa, who has been active in politics for some time, was recently imprisoned for disobeying a court order by the Kogi State High Court in Lokoja.
Here is the real justification for his arrest.
Is Abdulrasheed Bawa in custody?
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The Kogi State High Court, presided over by Justice R.O. Ayoola, has jailed Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for disobeying a court order.
The court subsequently mandated Bawa’s arrest and 14-day imprisonment in Kuje Prison while he self-exonerated of contempt.
As a result of the EFCC chairman’s violation of a court order given on November 30, 2022, requiring the Bawa to turn over Ali Bello, the case’s petitioner, Justice R.O. Ayoola granted the EFCC chairman’s plea to be committed to prison.
The applicant’s attorney, Sumaila Abbas, has filed a lawsuit against Bawa for illegally detaining and arresting Bello.
The EFCC accused Bawa of money laundering three days after the court ruled in Bawa’s favor.
The EFCC’s motions for a stay of execution and the overturning of the verdict were rejected because they lacked merit.
In a case brought by Ali Bello against EFCC and Bawa, who were the first and second respondents, the court had ordered the EFCC Chairman to appear before it on January 18, 2022, to justify why he should not be imprisoned for breaching the order given on December 12, 2022.
The document was identified as “HCL/697M/2022” and was headlined “Notice to Show Cause Why Order of Committal Should Not Be Made.”
The court mandated that the EFCC and Bawa be served with the motion of notice and Form 49 via alternative procedures.
Is the EFCC Chairman currently incarcerated or in jail?
The court found that Abdulrasheed Bawa’s arrest and incarceration were illegal, unconstitutional, and in violation of his right to personal liberty and dignity under Chapter IV of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Constitution. Bawa was recently imprisoned.
The petitioner was also awarded N10 million in damages, and the court ordered the respondents to apologise to him in a significant publication.
Theft Allegations Case Against Abdulrasheed Bawa In September 2020
Abdulrasheed has occasionally been the subject of disputes, and this is not the first time that he has been accused of fraud.
The Peoples Gazette revealed in an exclusive report in September 2020 how Bawa stole and sold dozens of gasoline-bearing trucks that had been seized from suspected looters, auctioning them off to his proxies at exorbitant prices. This occurred while Bawa was in charge of the Port Harcourt office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Ibrahim Magu, who was the commission’s acting chairman at the time, reportedly detained Bawa for a number of days after arresting him.
Then Bawa was let go from his position in Port Harcourt and transferred to the agency’s training center in Abuja.
Civil society organizations condemned Magu’s nomination to lead the EFCC after Magu was dismissed and urged the Nigerian Senate to reject it.
