On Monday 21 November 2016 when the application for bail filed by Chief Chris Uche SAN on behalf of the former FCT Minister Sen Bala Mohammed came up for hearing for the first time, the in-house lawyer representing the EFCC Rimasomte Ezekiel Esq., informed the FCT High Court 4 presided over by Hon. Justice U. Baba Yusuf that there was no need to move the application as he was in close consultation with the Investigation Officers and that the former minister who has been in detention without charge for 27 days as at the time would be released on or before the expiration of Wednesday 23rd November 2016. To buttress the undertaking the EFCC counsel informed the court that he was speaking from the Bar. By established judicial practice a lawyer is taken for his words and commitments whenever they swear by the Bar. In fact it is taken to be stronger than depositions in an affidavit. In the face of the above strong undertaken from the Bar by the EFCC, Chief Uche SAN representing the former Minister was constrained and he conceded adjournment since the essence of the commitment by EFCC meets the objective of the application for bail for his client. Based on the judicial practice that the courts do not act in vain, the Court adjourned the case to Thursday 24 November 2016 on the general understanding that parties would appear to report the release of the former Minister.
However when the case came up on Thursday 24th November 2016 the same counsel to the EFCC served a Counter Affidavit to the bail application opposing the application and deposing to facts it intended to rely upon to justify the continued detention of Sen Bala Mohammed. The EFCC lawyer stated in open court that the reason why he is recanting on the undertaken and commitment to release Sen Mohammed made on Monday is because of pressure from his superiors. “I did inform the court that we would do our best; whatever I said before the court is subject to the decision of my senior, my superior. I am just a small boy”.
Following the pressure from superiors which Ezekiel Esq., referred to in the matter, the EFCC resorted to methods that has grave consequences with potential to erode its integrity to the shock and bewilderment of lawyers in court and the public in the gallery. Chief Uche SAN had attached three letters addressed to, delivered and duly acknowledged by the EFCC relating to the former Minister's health condition to the bail application. The EFCC vehemently denied any knowledge of the health condition of the former Minister in open court in the face of incontrovertible facts put forward by Chief Uche SAN. Secondly without putting forward factual basis to substantiate any link as it claims the EFCC alleged that the former Minister who has been in its custody influence a co-suspect it granted bail to jump bail.
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