We have appealed against court order imprisoning me – EFCC chairman
Oge Simon
Abdulrasheed Bawa, new EFCC chairman.
Abdulrasheed Bawa, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says the anti-graft agency has appealed against a court verdict ordering his imprisonment late last month.
Mr Bawa made this known while addressing journalists in Abuja in reaction to the verdict of the court which became public knowledge on Tuesday.
"We have appealed against it already so we will allow the natural course of the law to take its effect," he said.
The commission's boss was jailed for contempt of court over failure to comply with an earlier order of the same court.
Chizoba Oji, the presiding judge, ordered the inspector-general of police (IGP) to ensure that Bawa is committed to prison for disobedience.
The judge gave the order in the motion on notice filed by Adeniyi Ojuawo, air vice marshal (now retired), against the federal government.
The judge held that Bawa is in contempt of the order of the court after the commission failed to return to a Range Rover and the sum of N40 million to Ojuawo.
The EFCC had arraigned Ojuawo on a two-count charge before Muawiyah Baba Idris, judge of the FCT, in Nyanya in 2016.
He was charged with receiving gratification from Hima Aboubakar of Societe D'Equipment Internationaux Nigeria Limited totalling N40 million and a Range Rover Sport (supercharged) valued at N29.250 million.
However, the judge discharged and acquitted Ojuawo on November 21, 2018, on the grounds that the prosecution had not made its case.
The judge then ordered the EFCC to return the money and the car to him, an order which was not complied with.