Graft: Appeal Court Dismisses EFCC’s Application against Fayose

By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

The Court of Appeal sitting in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday dismissed an interlocutory application brought before it by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking to restrain the Zenith Bank Plc from allowing Governor Ayodele Fayose from having access to his accounts domiciled in the bank.

The account was last year June frozen over allegation that it contained the sum of N2.999 billion out of the $3.2 billion suspected to have been distributed through the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Bello Dasuki.
The EFCC is also requesting a stay of execution of the judgment of the lower court.

However, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti had last year December 13 unfrozen Fayose domiciliary accounts in Zenith Bank, Ado Ekiti branch leading to the withdrawal of a sum of N5 million from the same account by the governor shortly after the judgment.

Consequent upon this, the EFCC had filed an appeal against the judgment and prayed the court to freeze the account on the premise that the money was a proceed of crime and pending the dispensation of justice on the matter to prove Fayose’s innocence.

Delivering his judgment, the appeal court panel comprising Justices Ahmed Belgore, Fatima Akinbami and Paul Elechi, in a unanimous verdict dismissed the application.

Details later…