By Okereke Udoakpuenyi, YeyeNews.com, December 9, 2021
A Lagos lawyer Barrister Osita Ifeje has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of bringing spurious charges that would never be substantiated against his client, a Lagos-based businessman Mr. Deji Babalola, who was charged to court on Monday at Ikeja High Court for blasphemy, slander and defamation of the name of the EFCC, YeyeNews.com has learned.
When the case was brought up and read in court and before the judge could say anything, the counsel to EFCC Barrister Tanko Uwais said that Mr. Babalola was a Yahoo Boy and asked the judge, Justice Ademola Thomas, to adjourn the case without allowing the defendant to make a plea. Barrister Uwais told the judge that the adjournment was necessary to help the EFCC to sift through abundance of evidence it gathered against the defendant and amend the charges.
According to YeyeNews.com reporter, the proceeding took a bizarre turn when the judge allowed Barrister Ifeje to state his objections. Barrister accused the EFCC of wasting the court’s time by filing fictitious and bogus charges. “My Lord, this is a case of choice of password and there is nothing like blasphemy in the Nigerian constitution and EFCC is not God.” He told the judge that his client was arrested due to report made against him by a business colleague over an online business that went sour.
He went on to state that his client was arrested and detained by EFCC who said they would not release him if he refused to tell them his laptop’s password. He said his client was in EFCC custody for 12 days before he relented and gave them his password which was !GodPunishEFCCforStealingMy$ in his presence. There was laughter in court as the password was revealed.
According to the lawyer, EFCC interrogators did not believe his client at first until they punched in the password and it worked. They went through his laptop and found nothing incriminating. Instead of releasing him or adhere to the issue that they arrested him for, they changed the angle of their questions and concentrated on his password: How did EFCC steal your dollar?; Who in EFCC stole your money?; Why would God punish EFCC?; and so on. They threatened Mr. Babalola and accused of him blasphemy and defamation. “I thought they were just trying to threaten him to tell them something they could use but I was shocked that someone in EFCC wrote up these charges and have it read in this court”, Barrister Ifeje said in astonishment.
Justice Thomas, who could not container has anger, granted bail to the defendant with no bond or surety after excoriating EFCC’s counsel. He told EFCC to either come up with a real charge or have this case dismissed before the next court date on January 18, 2022. “Is the EFCC God or the Holy Ghost?” he asked.
When YeyeNews.com reporter tried to speak with Barrister Uwais, he frowned his face and with annoyance told the reporter to get away from him. The reporter, who did not want to be charged with blasphemy, went away quickly. However, a lawyer who was at the court and had no connection to the matter poured scorn on EFCC and accused the agency of staffing its legal unit with school boys and half-baked lawyers who did not know the difference between Nigerian constitution and Alaba Market pamphlet. “How did Orji Uzor Kalu get off?” he asked.
