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A Lagos High
Court in Ikeja, presided over by
Justice Morenike Obadina, on Wednesday,
December 16 dismissed the N200billion
case jointly instituted by four
companies owned by the former Chief
Executive Officer of Intercontinental
Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, against
the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission {EFCC}, Attorney-General of
the Federation and Minister of Justice
as well as the Inspector- General of
Police.
The court
ruled that the case lacked merit and
awarded N20,000 cost in favour of the
EFCC.
Akingbola was
one of the bank executives sacked by
the Central Bank of Nigeria {CBN} in
August for giving out non-performing
loans totalling over N700 billion to
corporate bodies and individuals .While
some of the affected bank executives
were arrested and arraigned by the EFCC,
Akingbola evaded arrest and ran out of
the country.
Shortly after,
his lawyers sued EFCC and others on
behalf of his four companies namely;
Tropics Finance and Investment Ltd,
Tropics Property Ltd, Tropics Security
Ltd and Tropics Holdings Ltd with each
company claiming N50billion as damages
for alleged invasion of privacy and
business residence, closure of business
premises, continuous threat of further
invasion and for the freezing of the
companies accounts by the EFCC which was
listed as the first respondent in the
suit.
The claimants
regarded the actions taken against them
by the anti-graft agency as a violation
of their fundamental rights while they
urged the judge not only to award
N50billion each in their favour but to
also grant a perpetual injunction
against the respondents from arresting
and occupying their premises including
that of Akingbola.
Ruling on the
prayers Wednesday morning in a judgment
that lasted for over an hour, Justice
Obadina reviewed the submissions of the
counsel to both parties and dismissed
all the claims of the plaintiffs as
lacking merit while stating that the
EFCC Act 2004 empowered the anti-graft
commission to do what it did to the
companies .
She declared
that the EFCC action was lawful.
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