The Federal High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has dismissed a suit filed by the Akwa Ibom State Government challenging the powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to analyze the state’s monetary actions.
The EFCC disclosed this in an announcement posted on its official Facebook web page on Tuesday, saying that Justice M.A. Onyetenu dismissed the suit on 8 October after upholding a preliminary objection filed by the fee’s authorized staff.
The state’s then Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Uwemedimo Nwoko, instituted the suit in 2017 after an EFCC investigation into allegations that state assets had been diverted from their supposed functions.
The dismissal ends the federal court docket proceedings within the suit n the EFCC’s view. Still, it doesn’t quantity to a substantive willpower that triggered the investigation or a definitive ruling on the court docket’s jurisdiction over state funds.
The fee stated the decide upheld its objection that the suit was incompetent as a result of the same case instituted earlier on the Akwa Ibom State High Court in Ikot Ekpene remained pending when the federal motion was commenced.
The EFCC’s counsel, Joshua Abolarin, argued that the existence of the sooner suit made the next motion on the Federal High Court procedurally faulty.
Justice Onyetenu upheld the objection and dismissed the suit in its entirety, in accordance with the fee.
How the dispute started
The dispute dates again to 2016, when some Akwa Ibom residents petitioned the EFCC over the alleged diversion of state assets meant for public welfare and growth.
The fee stated it opened an investigation and invited some state authorities officers to be questioned.
Rather than honour the invites, the officers approached the Akwa Ibom State High Court in Ikot Ekpene by way of the state Attorney-General, challenging the fee’s actions.
The state authorities additionally instituted a separate suit on the Federal High Court, contesting the EFCC’s authority to analyze the state government’s monetary actions.
On 6 July 2016, the late Justice F.O. Riman granted an interim restraining order towards the EFCC and different federal authorities businesses pending the case’s willpower, in accordance with the fee.
The order was later used to withstand the fee’s makes an attempt to ask state officers for questioning.
An attraction towards the restraining order was unsuccessful, with the Court of Appeal directing the events to return to the trial court docket and await the willpower of the substantive suit, the EFCC stated.
The fee later challenged the committal suit’s competence, arguing that the sooner case earlier than the State High Court had not been resolved earlier than the second motion.
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What the ruling means
The newest ruling is a procedural victory for the EFCC in its protracted authorized dispute with the Akwa Ibom authorities.
By upholding the preliminary objection, the court docket dismissed the suit on the grounds the fee superior, reasonably than figuring out the underlying allegations of monetary misconduct, in accordance with data launched by the EFCC.
The dismissal doesn’t show that public funds had been diverted or that any state official dedicated an offence, nor does the fee’s announcement present whether or not the separate case on the Akwa Ibom State High Court has since been decided.
The ruling however removes the federal suit as a automobile for the state government’s problem to the fee’s investigation, topic to any additional authorized steps out there to the events.
The EFCC is a federal company established to analyze and prosecute financial and monetary crimes. Disputes over its investigative powers have periodically generated litigation involving public officers and authorities establishments
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