5th May, 2016
Akin Kuponiyi
Mr Azibaola Robert, a Niger-Delta activist who also is a cousin to Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan, has dragged the Federal Government of Nigeria to court over his continued detention.
Robert, a legal practitioner, and environmental activist is a close confidant of Jonathan.
He was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after he honored an invitation at the Abuja office of the anti-graft agency on March 23, 2016.
In a suit filed before the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, through the law firm of Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Robert is asking the court to stop the FG and indeed the EFCC from applying for any new remand warrant against him in any court in Nigeria, since a pattern has been established that such remand warrant is only a ploy to keep him in custody indefinitely.
He is asking the court to hold that sections 293 and 294 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which the EFCC is relying on to secure remand orders from magistrate courts were designed to cater for criminal offences attracting capital punishment, such as murder, armed robbery, kidnapping or treasonable felony, for which the police would need time to await a legal advice from the office of the Attorney-General, and not cases relating to financial crimes, being handled by the EFCC, for which are mostly documentary.
He is also asking to hold that the attempt by the EFCC to force him to implicate the former President, Dr Jonathan, is contrary to section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which has outlawed the practice of arresting a citizen as ransom for the alleged offense of another citizen.
Robert in his claim alleged that he was commissioned by the federal government to execute an assignment navigate the Niger Delta to network with all stakeholders for the purpose of preventing oil pipelines vandalism, oil bunkering and crude oil theft. The assignment was duly executed upon payment.
Robert is claiming that under section 8 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, he should not be arrested or prosecuted for any civil contract or transaction. He thus contends that he is being persecuted purely on account of his blood relationship with ex-president Goodluck Jonathan therefore wants the court to order his immediate release or that he should be charged to court for any offence against him.
Mr Robert also alleged that there are plans to keep transferring him from one state to another, upon the expiration of any particular remand warrant in one state, so as to renew such remand warrant in another state keep him in custody indefinitely.
Consequently he is seeking the following reliefs from the court: “A declaration that the Respondents are not entitled to arrest, detain, confine or in any other manner restrict his liberty without a charge or a trial in the appropriate court in flagrant violation of the his fundamental rights guaranteed under section 35, 38, 40 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Articles 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act CAP 10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
A declaration that the acts of the respondents, in obtaining remand orders against the him , for the purpose of keeping him in their custody, in perpetuity, constitute a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights guaranteed under section 34, 35, 36 and 46(1) the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 , and are therefore illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
A declaration that the EFCC is not entitled, under section 293 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, to apply for and obtain any remand warrant, from any court, against him, for the purpose of keeping him in custody, in perpetuity, in flagrant violation his fundamental rights guaranteed under section 34, 35, 36 and 46(1) the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 199
An order directing the Respondents, whether by themselves, their servants, agents, officers or otherwise howsoever to forthwith release the applicant from unlawful custody.
Alternatively, an order directing the Respondents to institute a criminal charge against the Applicant herein and arraign him before any court of competent jurisdiction.