The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has filed a motion before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, asking for a stay of execution of the judgment of the Kogi State High Court delivered on December 12, 2022 and the consequential order made on Feb. 6th 2023, in the suit between the commission and Ali Bello.
In the judgment of Feb 6th, Justice Rukayat Ayoola of the Kogi State High Court,had granted the application for commital to prison of the EFCC chairman, AbdulRasheed Bawa for disobeying an earlier court order made on 12 December 2022.
The court also directed the Inspector General of Police to arrest Mr Bawa and remand him in Kuje prison, Abuja, for the next 14 days.
In the December 12, 2022 ruling, the court held that the arrest and detention of Mr Bello on 29 November 2022 by the EFCC and its chairman in the face of an earlier subsisting court order without a warrant of arrest or being informed of the offence for which he was arrested is unlawful and unconstitutional.
Ali Bello, a nephew to the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, who is allegedly involved in a N10 billion fraud, had dragged Bawa to court for arresting and detaining him illegally, despite a court ruling in his favour, only for the EFCC to arraign him for alleged money laundering three days after the ruling
