Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa said he has appealed the verdict ordering his remand.
Gatekeepers News reports that Bawa said this on Tuesday while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja.
The EFCC boss said, “We have appealed against it already so we will allow the natural course of the law to take its effect.”
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that an Abuja High Court ordered the remand of the EFCC boss over the failure of the anti-graft agency to comply with an earlier order of the court.
The presiding judge, Justice Chizoba Oji ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to ensure that Bawa is committed to prison for disobedience.
The judge gave the order in the motion on notice filed by Adeniyi Ojuawo, Air Vice Marshal (now retired), against the federal government of Nigeria.
The judge held that Bawa is in contempt of the order of the court after the commission failed to return a Range Rover and the sum of N40 million to Ojuawo.
The judge held that “Having continued willfully in disobedience to the order of this court, he should be committed to prison at Kuje Correctional Centre for his disobedience, and continued disobedience of the said order of court made on November 21st, 2018 until he purges himself of the contempt.”
The EFCC had arraigned Ojuawo on a two-count charge before judge of the FCT, Muawiyah Baba Idris in Nyanya in 2016.
Ojuwao was charged with receiving gratification from Hima Aboubakar of Societe D’Equipment Internationaux Nigeria Limited totalling N40 million and a Range Rover Sport (supercharged) valued at N29.250 million.
The judge, however, discharged and acquitted him on November 21, 2018, on the grounds that the prosecution had not made its case.
The judge then ordered the EFCC to return the money and the car to him.
