A Federal High Court judge, Justice Belgore, has
upheld a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Dr. Iseghohi-Edwards, the
lawyer retained by the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Local
Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) to represent the 774 local government areas in
the London/Paris Club refunds matters. The court held that his rights were
unjustly breached by the respondents, who arrested and detained him and
continued to threaten to arrest and prosecute him.
The respondents in the suit are the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Attorney General of the Federation
(AGF), the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Federal Republic of
Nigeria (FRN).
Justice Belgore held that the EFCC's report of August
14, 2024, titled "Re: Request for investigation report on London-Paris
Club matters," in which the applicant was accused of fraud, was fabricated
solely to damage his reputation. He noted that the 2024 report lacked depth and
conflicted with earlier reports issued in 2016 by the EFCC and the Department
of State Services (DSS) on the same issue, which cleared Dr. Iseghohi-Edwards
of any wrongdoing.
The judge ruled that, having investigated and cleared
the applicant earlier, the respondents could not issue a contrary report years
later to contradict final findings. He described the 2024 report as a
contraption, an effort to stain the applicant and destroy his image, and issued
an order voiding it. He also found no element of criminal or fraudulent
allegation against the applicant in the earlier EFCC and DSS reports.
Justice Belgore further held that there was a valid
contractual agreement between the applicant and the Incorporated Trustees of
ALGON, which was confirmed by a series of judgments the applicant tendered in
court. "There were negotiated terms of engagement between the Incorporated
Trustees of ALGON and the applicant. These terms of engagement were
renegotiated by parties in open court on September 15, 2016," the judge
said.
The court also held that the 10 promissory notes
issued to the applicant, in compliance with a valid order of mandamus made
against the Federal Government by a Federal High Court, were validly issued by
then President Muhammadu Buhari. The judge faulted the AGF and the EFCC for
subjecting the applicant's court judgments to private investigation instead of
appealing them, and said it was wrong of them to doubt the authenticity of the
promissory notes.
Justice Belgore granted 20 of the 21 reliefs sought.
He ordered that the respondents and their agents have no legal right to
investigate purely civil matters already decided by courts of competent
jurisdiction, adding that such investigation has infringed, and is likely to
further infringe, the applicant's fundamental rights.
He also issued a perpetual injunction restraining the
respondents and their agents from criminalising or impugning the integrity of
judgments of competent courts, and from petitioning, questioning, inviting,
arresting, harassing, taking statements from, impeding the movement of,
harming, shooting, killing, charging, prosecuting, detaining or imprisoning the
applicant in relation to the London and Paris Clubs refunds.
The EFCC's lawyer, L. P. Apo, commended the judge for
his diligence. He said the 2024 report, which claimed the applicant obtained
the judgments fraudulently, was produced because Dr. Iseghohi-Edwards filed a
suit in the United States against the Nigerian government to dematerialise the
promissory notes.
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