Court Strikes Out Suit Seeking To Stop EFCC From Arresting, Probing Sanwo-Olu After His Tenure

The Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a suit seeking to prevent the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from arresting Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the end of his tenure.

Presiding judge Joyce Abdulmalik dismissed the case on October 31 after Gbenga Femi Akande, counsel to Sanwo-Olu, moved a motion to discontinue the suit.

Hadiza Afegbua, counsel for the EFCC, appeared in court on Tuesday expecting the case to be heard, only to discover that it had been struck out weeks earlier.

According to the enrolled order dated October 31, only Akande, Sanwo-Olu’s counsel, was present during the proceedings that led to the dismissal.

In October, a lawsuit was instituted on behalf of Sanwo-Olu against the EFCC over an alleged plan to arrest and prosecute him after his tenure was heard in court.

Darlington Ozurumba, a lawyer, filed the suit on behalf of the Lagos governor, who will complete his eight-year tenure on May 29, 2027.

In the suit, the lawyer argued that the alleged plan to arrest Sanwo-Olu is “unconstitutional and a flagrant violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty and freedom of movement as stipulated under sections 35(1) & (4) and 41(1) of the constitution”.

The suit sought an order to restrain the EFCC from harassing, intimidating, arresting, detaining, interrogating, or prosecuting Sanwo-Olu in connection with his tenure as the governor of Lagos state.

Reacting to the suit, the Lagos government said Sanwo-Olu had not instructed anyone to file a case against the EFCC.

Lawal Pedro, the Lagos attorney-general, said the state will investigate “how the case came to be without the knowledge” of the governor.

Pedro said neither the governor nor his aides are under investigation by the EFCC, adding that there is no threat of arrest by the anti-graft agency.

In a counter affidavit, Ufuoma Ezire, a superintendent and litigation secretary in the legal and prosecution department of the antigraft agency, said the EFCC is not investigating the governor and has never threatened to arrest him or his staff.

The anti-graft agency described the legal action as speculative and a “mere conjecture”.