Daniel Bwala, lawyer and public affairs analyst, has criticized the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the allegations against former Kogi state governor Yahaya Bello.Where these two facts exist, the way we know it, we teach students in law school, is that a party must maintain status quo pending the hearing of the various applications and objections so that court will decide.
”If on that day, the court says, your request to set aside this order of arrest has now been overtaken by event because you are already before me, then fine. If the court says, on that day, you are not before me, so that means this order to arrest will have to be extended, even if you throw away, there will naturally be a request that a bench warrant be issued since you have not appeared for your arrest. If the court set it aside, then you proceed to trial.
”What it means is that the two sides of the coin, whichever way you flip it, it maintains the value of the coin. If the coin is 10 naira, irrespective of the two sides of the coin, the coin remain 10 naira, I mean 10 kubo. Now if the coin’s value changes from 10 kubo to 5 kubo, then you begin to look at the distinctive characteristics of each of the two sides of the coin.
”So this is where we are now, and I don’t want to talk about whether this application will succeed or it will fail because that is left for the court to decide. But what we know is that where parties have submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of the court, parties are to maintain the status quo pending the direction of the court.
”So if the EFCC continues to be chasing him up and down, it will now feed into the narrative that the EFCC is all about media and drama rather than the actual prosecution because you have now found that your charge has been served on him.
”What are you supposed to do as prosecution? You are supposed to then prepare on that day after arraignment, you will now do your open address or request for a date for trial. This is the fact as they are.
”The media interview he did yesterday, he shot himself with so many types of bullets by clearly showing to the world that it’s a disproportionate application of their principles.
”I told you the first one, which is that one is saying you come to my office through the back door, and then I’ll get people to come and interview you, which nobody gets that. And the law is that everybody is equal before the law and nobody is above the law.
”Two, you have seen the zeal with which he must be arrested. Now, if you ask somebody, they will say, but there are other similar cases before you for which you have even given a preliminary report of indictment, but you have not arrested the person.”
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