Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to court for placing him on a watch list.
The EFCC had earlier written an advisory to key security agencies demanding that Fayose be arrested if he attempts to flee the country through land, sea and air borders to escape justice.
Fayose had on September 3 threatened to sue the EFCC if it fails to withdraw the advisory within 72 hours saying the action “not only breached his constitutional immunity, it also exposed him to public opium and ridicule.”
He also demanded the publication of a written apology to all Security Agencies in Nigeria, three national newspapers and the social media.
It was gathered on Tuesday that Fayose, through his counsel, Mr Obafemi Adewale, filed the suit last Friday consequent upon the failure of the EFCC to meet the governor’s demands.
It should be recalled that EFCC had tweeted on July 16, 2018, through its official Twitter handle @officialEFCC concerning Fayose that “The parri is over, the cloak of immunity is torn apart and the staff broken, Ekiti Integrated Poultry/Biological Concepts Limited N1.3bn fraud case file dusted off the shelves. See you soon.”
In the suit marked FJC/ABJ/CS/1087/2018, Fayose is seeking among other things; an order of the Court mandating the EFCC to pay the sum of N20 billion as general damages to them for what he called “flagrant, deliberate, pre-meditated and reckless libel and unprovoked attack on his character and reputation and the breach of his constitutional right/immunity as an incumbent Governor.”
He demanded that the EFCC should tender a written apology, which should be circulated to all Security Agencies in Nigeria and same should be published in at least three widely read National Newspapers and through the social media.
The governor is also seeking a declaration that the statements contained in the EFCC letter dated September 12, 2018, and addressed to all Security Agencies in Nigeria portrayed him as a criminal, a fugitive and a run-away from the law and that the statements are not true, are malicious, are not fair statements.
He wants the court to further declare; “that the EFCC letter placing him on watch-list and directing his arrest on sight even while a sitting Governor is unconstitutional as same offends the clear provision of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which clothes him with immunity against arrest and prosecution as an incumbent Governor.”
“That the tweet by the Defendant (EFCC) through its official Twitter handle, which was widely circulated through social media and published on Punch Newspaper (online) of 16th July 2018, with the particulars wordings pleaded in the Statement of Claim filed along with this Writ
is not true, is malicious, is not a fair statement and presents the Plaintiff as a fraudster thereby ridiculing him and reducing him in the eyes of reasonable and right-thinking members of the society.”
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