EFCC Releases Detained Lawyer As NBA Protests
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released a lawyer, Phillip Tunji Ojo, that has been in its facility in Oyo State.
Ojo’s release comes about 24 hours after he was arrested by the anti-graft agency in Ibadan.
After he was detained, members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had staged a peaceful protest demanding the unconditional release of their colleague.
The Ibadan NBA Chairman, Ibrahim Lawal, confirmed Ojo’s release to Channels Television in a telephone conversation on Thursday.
Lawal said that the protest became necessary to show their dissatisfaction with what he called the illegal and unlawful detention of the lawyer in the course of his duty and to put an end to the constant harassment of lawyers by the EFCC.
He was accompanied by some members of the branch who staged a peaceful protest at the Iyaganku zonal office of the EFCC in the morning to register their agitation.
Lawal stated that some of the overzealous officers were hostile to him and his team but Ojo was eventually released following the intervention of the Zonal Director of the Commission, Hauwa Garba Ringim.
While addressing protesting members of the NBA, the EFCC Zonal Director appealed for calm and sued for greater synergy between the bar and the commission especially in the fight against corruption.
