“Threatened To Shoot Court Officials” — Emenike Accuses EFCC Of Defying Court Order On Aso Drive Property

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general election, Chief Ikechi Emenike, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are at loggerheads over a forfeited property located at 6 Aso Drive, Asokoro, Abuja.

While the APC chieftain accused the commission of disobeying court orders on the seizure of his residence, the EFCC said it is not in its character to undermine the authority of courts of competent jurisdiction.

In a statement, Emenike said Justice Musa Liman of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered the EFCC to vacate the property after turning down the commission’s request for a stay of execution order.

The former governorship candidate, who attached certified copies of court documents to the statement, accused the agency of ignoring the order.

But in a spontaneous reaction, the EFCC said there was no iota of truth in the allegation, stating that it had the order of the court to back the seizure of the property. “It is not in the character of the EFCC to engage in judicial disobedience,” the commission stated, adding that it “obtained a legitimate order of possession from the court” before taking possession of the property located at 6 Aso Drive, Asokoro, Abuja.

It explained that there was no misrepresentation of facts before Justice Liman, adding that the presence of a tenant, Chief Ikechi Emenike, in the disputed property did not invalidate the court’s final forfeiture order.

The commission faulted claims that it wrongly evicted Emenike or disregarded a standing contempt order, emphasising that there was no valid court order served on EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, or the Commission’s counsel, Mr Francis Usani.

On Emenike’s claims of having long years of tenancy and a Right of First Refusal on the property, the EFCC stated that while Emenike had a rental agreement with a former minister, he had not been paying rent to the Commission for over a decade.

On the issue of the Right of First Refusal, the Commission claimed that Justice Musa’s judgment of 18 April 2024 only granted Emenike the right to be considered for purchase, if and when the property was officially put up for sale—a move the EFCC said had not occurred.

However, Emenike, who possesses receipts of rent payments from January 2017 to December 2022, said he had been living in the building for more than 10 years.

“When the EFCC secured the house as a forfeited asset, they appointed an agent, Azikagbon & Co, to whom I have been paying rent on behalf of the EFCC.

“When the house was advertised for sale by the EFCC, I had a meeting with the former EFCC Chairman (Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa) on the need to grant me the Right of First Refusal. He agreed but promised that they would get back to me after re-evaluating the property.

“While I was waiting for the Right of First Refusal, the EFCC suddenly decided, against their own law, to appropriate the property to their chairman. I objected and went to court. After several months of legal exchange before an FCT High Court, Honourable Justice Musa, in a subsisting (unappealed) judgment, gave me the Right of First Refusal and told the EFCC that they have no legal right to keep any forfeited property for their own use.

“In the same judgment, he ruled that the only option the law gives them is to sell the property and remit the proceeds to the Federal Government’s Single Treasury Account. He ruled that as a sitting tenant, the EFCC should give me the Right of First Refusal.

“The EFCC has not appealed the judgment and has also refused to give me the Right of First Refusal. Rather, in an unethical move, the EFCC went to the Federal High Court and, on an ex parte application, secured an eviction order with which they stormed No. 6 Aso Drive and chased away all my domestic staff and took possession of the house.

“We approached the same court that gave the ex parte order. It reversed its earlier order and lambasted the EFCC for fraudulently securing the order, and ordered them to vacate my residence and restore me to the house.

“The court sent its bailiffs to enforce the order. Rather than obey and vacate the premises, the EFCC bluntly told the bailiffs that they would not obey any court order and even threatened to shoot the court officials. The court tried again with the support of policemen from the FCT Police Command, but met further resistance from EFCC operatives.

“The EFCC filed a motion before the same court for a stay of execution of the court order.”

Emenike said he was curious about the agency’s conduct in the matter, adding: “The court not only rejected and dismissed the EFCC motion, the court also told them to go and purge themselves of their disobedience of the order. The court stated that the EFCC’s behaviour is unconscionable.”