NIGERIA: The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is embroiled in controversy after unlawfully evicting High Chief Ikechi Emenike from his Abuja residence, despite a subsisting court order. The EFCC had secured the property as a forfeited asset in 2016, and Emenike had been a tenant.
A court ruled in Emenike’s favour, stating that the EFCC had a statutory duty to sell the property and remit proceeds to the Federal Government, rather than appropriating it for itself. The court also found that the EFCC had a duty to give Chief Emenike the Right of First Refusal as a sitting tenant when the property was slated for statutory disposal.
However, the EFCC obtained an ex parte order and evicted Emenike’s family, despite the subsisting judgment. When the court reversed the eviction order and restored Emenike’s occupancy rights, the EFCC ignored the ruling and chased away Court Bailiffs and Police escorts sent to perfect it.
Justice Musa Liman, who granted the ex parte order, later dismissed the EFCC’s application for a stay of execution, stating that “this court will deny the applicant further audience until it purges itself of the contempt.” He also warned that “disobedience to a court order is injurious to the rule of law and can lead to anarchy.”
The EFCC’s spokesperson has claimed that the property was not up for sale, despite a photograph of the house being used to publicize the agency’s auction since 2022. The agency has also claimed that it was not served the court order, but the bailiff who served the order deposed to having done so with an affidavit.
Concerned citizens and watchers of the socio-political milieu have concluded that the EFCC has run out of excuses for not obeying court orders. To date, the family of Chief Emenike is denied access to the property they called home for 11 years and cannot get value for the judgment of a duly constituted court of law in Nigeria.
