A Federal High Court sitting in Ekiti has refused an application to unfreeze Gov. Fayose bank accounts and also summoned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to appear before it on July 4 to explain why it should not unfreeze Governor Ayodele Fayose’s account with Zenith Bank.
Fayose through his lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), approached the court on Tuesday through an ex parte order seeking a mandatory order unfreezing the accounts pending the determination of his interlocutory application. The first and second respondents are the EFCC and Zenith bank.
The commission had frozen Fayose’s account and those of some of his associates after allegedly tracing N4.7bn from the Office of the National Security Adviser to them and those of two sons of a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro.
But ruling on the application, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, said the Applicant/Plaintiff (Fayose) should put the respondents on notice.
He said “I quite agree that the applicant has immunity pursuant to provisions of the Constitution, but it is glaring that what the applicant is looking for is a mandatory order to undo what had already been done.
“In this case, it is noted by the court that the reliefs sought by the applicant are better granted during the interlocutory injunction. I don’t think any court will abdicate his duties. I have restrained from going into the merit of the case because the originating summon has yet to be heard and should not be preempted.
“I hereby order the first and second respondents should appear before this court on why the order being sought should not be granted.”
No comments:
Post a Comment