18th January 2019
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.”
