A former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, on Monday lost his N100m fundamental rights enforcement suit filed against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Justice Abdulaziz Anka of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, declared the suit incompetent.
The former minister, his wives, Fati and Moroophat and sons, Gbolahan and Babajide, had, through their counsel, Lawal Pedro, a senior advocate of Nigeria, sued the Commission for “unlawful invasion of their houses and seizure of some of their properties.”
They urged the court to declare the seizure of items from their houses on 14 June 2016 by the commission as null and void.
However, in his ruling today, Justice Anka upheld the preliminary objection by E.E. Iheanacho, counsel to the EFCC.
The judge said “since the main claim of the applicants was founded on tort, their principal reliefs are not maintainable under the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009.”
The judge ruled that the Commission had secured search warrants from the Lagos State Magistrate Court to carry out the search on the applicants’ houses.
Justice Anka also refused to declare the recovered items as null and void, so as not to prevent the Commission from tendering them as exhibits in the pending criminal case against the applicants.
