Accused Pension Director Seeks EFCC Dissolution


Embattled former director of Pensions at the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Shuaibu Sani Teidi,  who is standing trial on an alleged embezzlement, on Tuesday approached a Federal High Court siting in Abuja asking the court to make an order nullifying the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Establishment Act which, according to him, is illegal, null and void.

Speaking through his lawyer, Mr. Edgar Onoja, the former director urged the court to hold that the National Assembly went against the spirit of the Nigerian Constitution by setting up a body to perform the duties of the Nigerian Police Force contrary to the constitution. 

"The purpose of this suit, is to declare the EFCC Act as unconstitutional since the organization carries out the duties of the Police. They apprehend offenders, investigate crimes and initiate criminal proceedings in court, all these are the duties listed to be carried out by the Nigerian Police. The EFCC enjoys the status and powers vested on the Police by our constitution. However and whatever name a rose  is called, it will still smell like a rose. So it is not in the name but in the function that the EFCC performs. Those duties are those that must be performed by the police outside any other organization. The intendment of the law is that Nigeria should have a centralized law enforcement organization known as the Nigerian Police, so we submit that the National Assembly cannot go about creating special bodies here and there to do what the law has created the Nigerian Police to do, otherwise, we will soon get to a situation where several law enforcement agencies will be created outside the constitutional Nigerian Police Force" argues Mr. Onoja.

He therefore urged the court nullify the EFCC Act and to order the agency to release of all his client's properties it confiscated as well as the immediate release of his client from detention as since such duties ought to have been performed by the Police and not the EFCC. 

The EFCC and it's Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, represented by Chief Godwin Obla vehemently opposed the argumrnt and urged the court to dismiss it since the EFCC Act was passed by the National Assembly which is a body empowered to make laws for the smooth running of the Nigerian society. 

According to Chief Obla, the plaintiff;  Mr. Teidi, is seeking for a perpetual injunction restraining the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from further arresting and interrogating him in relation to his alleged crimes and pointed out that the law is clear in that regard, that no institution can be restrained from carrying out its constitutional functions.

He further argued that until the law establishing the EFCC is set aside or upturned, that the anti graft agency cannot be restrained from doing what the establishment Act prescribed for it to do. He also averred that the other relief being sought by Teidi, that is the release of the seized properties, was at the instance of another court and wondered why Mr. Teidi left the court which ordered the seizure of the properties he allegedly acquired with stolen pension funds and approached another court to order the release of the properties to him.

"Those properties were seized sequel to an order made by Justice Adamu Bello of a sister Federal High Court. The plaintiff has not applied for that order to be set aside, neither has he appealed that order. Moreover, there is no where he's unequivocally owned up to owing the confiscated properties because he knows that if he does, he will then need to show where he got the money to acquire them. He also wants this court to stop his ongoing trials in another court. I think such reliefs should best be canvassed before the court where he is standing trial and not here in this court"

Chief Obla further added that Teidi is deliberately abusing the court process and called on the court to exercise its powers to stop him from further abuse of court process.

On his part, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke who was represented by Mr. Mathew  Echo, urged the court to dismiss the suit for want of locus standing on the part of Mr. Teidi. He pointed out that there is no right which the plaintiff is seeking to protect as he is not a member of the Nigerian Police Force to be assumed to be protecting the interest of the police. The Attorney General also faulted the procedure by which the suit was instituted and noted that the reliefs the plaintiff is seeking are contentious and that the suit had to be commenced by writ so summons and not through an originating summons. He thereafter urged the court to dismiss the suit.

The court presided by Justice Gabriel Kolawole adjourned till 18th July, to deliver judgment on the matter.

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