Lessons DSS, EFCC Can Learn from ICPC’s Case

The order by a Federal High Court in Abuja for the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to pay N1 million to a former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Dibu Ojerinde, should be a lesson to the federal government and its agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) against arbitrariness and unlawful detention

The presiding judge of the court, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, also awarded a N200,000 fine against the ICPC as the cost of instituting the suit and ordered the immediate release or arraignment of the applicant.

In March 2021, Ojerinde  was  arrested by the ICPC. On July 6, 2021, he was arraigned on an 18-count charge bordering on alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of N5.2 billion while in office. He was later granted bail while the trial continued.

In January 2023, Ojerinde was re-arrested by the ICPC at the premises of the court. But the former JAMB Registrar sued ICPC for allegedly violating his right to dignity and liberty.

Delivering judgment last Tuesday, Egwuatu held that though Ojerinde’s re-arrest was legal and lawful based on the search warrant obtained from the chief judge of the court, the anti-graft commission ought to have obtained a detention warrant.

The judge held that detaining the applicant without a proper order and not arraigning him was a breach of his fundamental right to liberty. However, the court held that Ojerinde’s right to the dignity of a person was not breached since he was unable to show that he was either tortured or brought into forced slavery, among others.

He ordered that the former JAMB registrar should be released or arraigned immediately.

Although Ojerinde had sought N500 million as compensation and another N100 million as the cost of instituting the suit, the court awarded N1 million as damages and N200,000 as litigation cost.

The order by the court should be a lesson to anti-corruption and security agencies who should ensure that suspects are thoroughly investigated before rushing to arrest them.

Till date, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele and Chairman of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, are still languishing in the custody of the DSS after their arrests due to the much-denounced arrest-before-investigation policy.