“ICPC Is Being Mischievous, Chief Okoi Obono Obla Is Not On The Run” – Obono’s Lawyer

F. Baba Isa, the counsel to Chief Okoi Obono Obla, the erstwhile
Chairman of the Special Presidential Panel for the Recovery of
Public property,  has said that his client was never invited
by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC for
questioning before they declared him wanted as earlier speculated
in the media.

F. Baba Isa, made its position known in a statement issued
on Friday, stating that though it is obvious that the whole intent
of the ICPC Press Statement declaring Our Client wanted is an
unfortunate episode in a well-oiled media trial orchestrated to
ridicule and embarrass a man who spent the last two years of his
life-fighting corruption to its knees, let us put some record
straight as succinctly as possible.

Read partly his statement 

“Chief Okoi Obono Obla was never ever invited by the ICPC
for an interview or questioning. Rather, we read on social media
and blogs that a purported invitation letter was left at the law
office of Obono, Obono & Associates, a law firm which Our
Client resigned from since 2015 to accept the appointment of
President Mohammadu Buhari, first to serve as Special Assistant on
Prosecution and then as Chairman of the Special Presidential Panel
for the Recovery of Public Property. The ICPC knew this; for they
should know that he was not combining private legal practice and
public service.

“An invitation of this nature must be done by personal
service on the invitee, failure of which the proper legal steps
should be taken to serve the invitee through substituted means.
ICPC cannot just drop a purported invitation letter meant for a
person anywhere and claim that they have invited such a person. So,
we repeat, Chief Okoi Obono Obla has never been invited by the
ICPC.

“Secondly, a case has been filed by Our Client against the
ICPC challenging the purported investigation on the grounds that
the agency is already prejudiced against him. Our Client took this
action after a full-blown media trial was launched against him. It
was/is crystal clear that the ICPC has already declared him guilty
even before they started their investigation. No sane man will
trust an investigative agency to be fair, just and decent when it
is clear from their conduct and posturing that such an agency has
already taken sides.

“The ICPC has been served with court processes in the said
suit, but they have refused to react to the suit but rather they
have chosen to carry on as a law unto themselves, ignoring the suit
and going on with the media trial by declaring Our Client wanted
without even first obtaining an order of court in that
regard.

“This is most unfortunate. The ICPC should obey the law and
due process by first serving Our Client an invitation letter,
joining issues with Our Client in court and when that is disposed
off, one way or the other, justice can be said to have been done.
To arrogantly ignore the case in court and carry on as they are
doing cuts a riotous image of President Buhari’s administration. It
paints the administration as one without adherence to the rule of
law, one that sacrifices its anti-corruption crusaders for
political expediency.  It is most unfortunate,” he
stated.