Onnoghen: Fani-Kayode, Odumakin sue EFCC, Police for N20m

A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode; and activist,
Yinka Odumakin, have sued the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission and the Nigeria Police Force for N20m over attempts to
arrest them.

They also asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the
Department of State Services from detaining them.

The move comes barely 24 hours after the EFCC vowed to invite
and possibly prosecute them for breaching the Cyber Crime Act.

Both Fani-Kayode and Odumakin, who is the spokesman for
pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, had alleged that the EFCC had
surrounded the home of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter
Onnoghen, who is facing prosecution for alleged corruption.

They instituted the fresh court action marked FHC/ABJ/CS/49/2019
before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday.

In the originating summons filed on their behalf by
Chukwuma-Chukwu Ume (SAN), the plaintiffs asked the Federal High
Court to rule that the respondents’ public declaration to arrest
them on the basis of spreading false rumours is an infringement on
their fundamental rights as enshrined in Section 34(a) 35(1) (4)
and (5) of the 1999 Constitution.

They are also seeking an order “restraining the respondents,
their privies, their agents from inviting, detaining or arresting
the applicants for any reason without following due process.

“And an order that the respondents pay the sum of N20,000,000 as
damages for the unlawful threat to arrest the applicants.”