Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state has been deprived of possibility to use the two private accounts of in Zenith Bank till November 7.
Recall that the governor is suing the EFCC for blocking his accounts since June. The anti-graft agency has brought Fayose before a court on fraud charges.
However, Mike Ozehkome, Fayose’s lead counsel, has argued that the EFCC lacked the constitutional rights to apply punitive measures on the governor who has immunity until the end of his tenure in 2018.
He also stressed that the accounts freezing is unlawful as based on unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and couldn’t be imposed until the governor found guilty.
Besides, the councel has pointed out that the exparte order (the EFCC is relying on in blocking accounts) had been abused, as it was not expected to last longer than few weeks.
He said: “My Lord, my client’s accounts were frozen in June and we are now in September, making a total of four months altogether.
As far as we know, the principle of exparte order which is meant to last for a while has been grossly abused here.
This is because as you can see, my client has been unjustly subjected to both psychological and mental torture, as if to say judgment must come before trial.”
Mr Ozehkome demanded N5 billion to be paid by the EFCC to the governor as aggravated damages. He also asked the court to vacate an earlier order that empowered the anti-graft body to block the governor’s accounts.
Rotimi Oyedepo, the EFCC lead counsel, insisted on legitimacy of the freezing and asked Justice Taiwo to adjourn the case to study the counter argument of Mr. Fayose’s lead counsel.
The case was consequently adjourned till November 7.