The news that Justice Chizoba Oji of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has ordered that the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa be arrested and committed to the Kuje prison for contempt of court was quite unbelievable to many people.
Some people have raised the issue of; “whether a high-profile executive like the chairman of the EFCC can be sent to jail while still in office or if a judge has the power to send to prison a high-profile executive like a serving chairman of the EFCC”?
Readers should therefore note that the office of the chairman of the EFCC is not shielded by “executive immunity” by the constitution or by any other subsisting law, hence, a judge has the power in the exercise of his judicial function to send the occupant of that office to jail if need so be.
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The reason why the Honorable justice ordered that the chairman of the anti-graft agency be committed at the Kuje prison is because the chairman neglected and willfully disobeyed the order of the court; On the 21st Day of November 2018, the court in a judgment ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja to return to the Plaintiff/applicant his Range Rover (Supercharge) and the sum of N40, 000,000.00 (Forty Million Naira) which was taken and confiscated by the EFCC. The Efcc failed to honor that order of the court and that amounts to contempt of the court. (Do check our previous essay on contempt of court to fully understand what contempt of court means).
In reading today’s judgement, the court held inter Alia; “Having continued wilfully in disobedience to the order of this court, he should be committed to prison at Kuje Correctional Centre for his disobedience, and continued disobedience of the said order of court made on November 21st, 2018, until he purges himself of the contempt”.
The judge further mandated that the Inspector General of police ensure that the order so given that the EFCC chairman be arrested and sent to the Kuje prison is executed with immediate effect.
One can posit that this judgment of the court to send the chairman to jail is an attempt to embarrass and ridicule the person of the chairman and the office he occupies but the chairman first ridiculed the court by willfully disobeying and refusing to honor the order of the court and if everybody disobeys the order of the court the judiciary as an institution will collapse.
This judgment will stand as a litmus test to show that nobody is above the law and the judiciary is always there with long “koboko” to lash out at anybody despite your status in society if you fail to act accordingly.