Court rejects federal government's application to issue warrant for the arrest of Ekweremadu

DEPUTY senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu has avoided arrest after an Abuja federal high court rejected a request by the federal government to issue a bench warrant for his incarceration for failing to declare his assets.

In August, Senator Ekweremadu was arrested and questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his failure to explain how he came to own 22 properties in Nigeria, the US, UK and the United Arab Emirates. He is also facing charges of failing to declare the properties in his asset declaration form at the Code of Conduct Bureau.

This followed a development in March when anti-graft officials asked an Abuja court to temporarily seize some properties including two houses in the UK belonging to Senator Ekweremadu. According to the Okoi Obono-Obla Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Senator Ekweremadu failed to declare of the said properties in his assets declaration forms dated June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2015.

In what appears to be a tightening of the noose on Senator Ekweremadu as the February 2019 elections loom, this week, the government sought to get him arrested. However, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja rejected the request.

Senator Ekweremadu is accused in a two-count charge filed on behalf of the federal government by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) of refusing to declare his assets. He is said to have refused without reasonable excuse, upon the notice to declare his assets in the manner prescribed by the SPIP.

Yesterday, the lawyer for the prosecution, Celsus Ukpong, revealed that Senator Ekweremadu has consistently refused to attend court despite being served with the charge filed on May 11, this year. Mr Ukpong added that Senator Ekweremadu has also shunned the court despite being served with the summons for his arraignment yesterday.

Mr Ukpong said: “He, Ekweremadu decided not to obey the summons. We therefore apply for a bench warrant to be issued against him.”

However, Senator Ekweremadu’s lawyer Adegboyega Awomolo, urged the court to disregard Mr Ukpong’s application for a bench warrant on his client. Mr Awomolo said Senator Ekweremadu had, on November 1, challenged the competence of the charge and the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case through an application of objection.

He urged the court to first resolve the challenge to its jurisdiction and the competence of the charge before attending to the charge. He cited some authorities, including a recent decision by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which explained the powers of the SPIP.

Justice Nyako agreed that it was premature for the prosecution to request the court to issue a bench warrant against the defendant. She said it was not until the motion challenging the court’s jurisdiction and the issues concerning the recent judgment of the Court of Appeal were resolved that the court could consider the issue of whether or not a bench warrant should be issued.