Some Nigerians have raised concern over the continuous detention of the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, without trial, for four months.
A former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, posted on his X handle, @ChidiOdinkalu. “Abdulrasheed Bawa of @officialEFCC has been disappeared beyond the reach of the law or care of legality. This is just not right.”
Another Nigerian, @ZariyiYusufu also commented on the indefinite detention of Bawa.
He said: “I wonder, for moral reasons, why he and Emefiele should face any charge while the man from whom ‘first-hand’ instructions came, for almost every move they made while in office, is free.”
President Bola Tinubu said in his inaugural address to the nation on May 29, that he would be guided by the rule of law in running the country.
He said: “The principles that will guide our administration are simple: Nigeria will be impartially governed according to the constitution and the rule of law.”
Since June, the Department of State Services (DSS) has been holding the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, without trial.
The secret police has also been holding Ex-Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) boss, Godwin Emefiele and some of his colleagues in indefinite detention. Although the DSS filed a two count charge of illegal arm possession against Emefiele, that case has since been abandoned. A fresh charge of financial misdeeds has been levelled against the ex-CBN boss, which appears now to be in the cooler.
The Nigerian law forbids the police or other security agencies to keep a person longer than 24 or 48 hours in custody without a court order.
In the case of Bawa, there appears to be a Magistrate Court’s order for his detention, according to a legal firebrand, Femi Falana, who also said the Magistrate’s order was far outspent as no Magistrate has the order to keep a crime suspect in perpetuity.
He said: “I am not unaware of the claim that Mr. Bawa is being detained on the basis of a remand order issued by a Magistrate Court in the Federal Capital Territory. The remand order has become spent, invalid, and illegal as no magistrate has the power under Section 493 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, or Section 35 of the Constitution of Nigeria to authorise the detention of a criminal suspect for 67 days without trial.”
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