Ex-Rep Drags EFCC To Court For Declaring Him Wanted

Former member of the House of Representatives, Napoleon Obukowho Gbinije, has dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before an Abuja High Court over alleged breach of his fundamental human right.
The EFCC had on January 8, 9 and 10 declared Gbinije wanted through press releases and advertorials in newspapers and radio over alleged breach of trust and illegal diversion of funds to the tune of N281 million.
The said advertorial which was published in two national dailies  on January 8, 2013 by the commission stated that Gbinijie was wanted in connection with a case of breach of trust and illegal diversion of funds to the tune of N281,280,000.
Gbinije who represented Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie Federal Constituency of Delta State between 2003 and 2007 had approached the court through his counsel, Kehinde Ogunwumiju of Chief Afe Babalola Chambers praying for a declaration that the actions of the respondent culminating in the threatened imminent arrest and indefinite detention of the applicant by the respondent are unconstitutional, illegal and amounts to a violation  of his Fundamental Rights to personal liberty as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
He therefore asked the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent from arresting or detaining  him without following the due process of law.
In a 19-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Bamikole Aduloju averred that the applicant was unable to personally depose to the affidavit because he is not within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court at the moment as he is under close medical attention in Lagos State.
He further averred that the Gbinije was never involved in any case of Breach of Trust and Illegal Diversion of funds to the tune of N281 million or any other sum of money.
He also averred that “the Applicant was in a delicate state of health and had been hospitalised for close medical attention for some weeks when his friends, relatives and well-wishers drew his attention to advertorials published by the Respondent in the Leadership Newspaper (vol. no.1,811) and the Nation Newspaper (both of January 8, 2013) wherein the Applicant was declared wanted by the Respondent in connection with a case of “Breach of trust and illegal diversion of funds to the tune of N281,280,000.00 (Two Hundred and Eighty One Million, Two Hundred and Eighty Thousand Naira Only).
“That the condition of health of the Applicant has so far worsened as a result of the said publication and subsequent rise of his blood pressure which may lead to cardiac arrest and death”.