A Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, has said the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olanipekun Olukoyede, risks imprisonment over his alleged refusal to comply with its ruling in a suit filed against the commission by the Bliss Multinational Perfection and the Chief Executive Officer of Baraza Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, Oyinmiebi Bribena.
In his judgment on the suit, Justice Isa H. Dashen, had perpetually restrained the EFCC from seizing properties belonging to Bliss Multinational Perfections Limited and Bribena, saying they are not proceeds of crime.
Also, Justice Dashen declared the seizure and sealing of properties belonging to Bliss Multinational Perfections Limited and Bribena by the EFCC as unlawful.
The judge described the instructions given to Bribena’s bankers by the EFCC to place a post-no-debt lien or freeze his accounts as unlawful.
The EFCC was also perpetually restrained from “inviting, harassing, arresting, detaining, threatening to arrest, or detaining the Plaintiffs as a result of the civil dispute between Baraza Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited and its members, or on matters arising from the registered business objects of the co-operative society”.
The sum of N10,000,000 was awarded as exemplary damages against the EFCC for the unlawful seizure and attachment of properties belonging to Bliss Multinational and Bribena.