Non-assets declaration: Court frees director, brother says SPIP Cannot Prosecute

A Federal High Court in Abuja has freed the Director of Finance
and Accounts in the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing,
Ibrahim Tumsah, and his brother, Tijani Tumsah, arraigned for
allegedly failing to declare their assets.

Ibrahim and Tijani (Vice Chairman of the Presidential Initiative
on North East) were arraigned on a two-count charge marked
FHC/ABJ/CR/4/2018, filed last year by the Special Presidential
Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP),
headed by Okoi Obono-Obla.

The panel had, upon an order of court, seized 86 luxurious
vehicles, four houses and a quarry plant in Abuja which the panel
claimed belonged to the two defendants.

In a ruling on Monday, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo, held that the
SPIP lacked the powers to file charges against anyone and could
also not prosecute anyone for any infraction as it relates to the
law that created it.

The judge said there is nowhere in the SPIP establishment Act,
where the panel is given power to engage in prosecution or filing
of charges on behalf of the Federal Government, the Federal
Republic of Nigeria or the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF)
as it has done.

Justice Ekwo said, by the law establishing the SPIP, its powers
ends after concluding its investigation on any case and submitting
its findings to the President of the country.

The judge said by virtue of an earlier judgment of the Court of
Appeal in Abuja, to the effect that the SPIP cannot prosecute, his
court’s jurisdiction is ousted on the charge against the Tumsah
brothers until the judgement is set aside by a superior court.

The judge proceeded to dismiss the charge and discharged the two
defendants.