Court Orders EFCC To Stop Right Infringement

The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the EFCC to stop the harassment and interrogation of six businessmen over alleged fraud.
Justice I. M. Sanni also ordered the commission to stop threatening and intimidating the men, and release their international passports to allow them free movement.
The judge gave the ruling in an application for the enforcement of fundamental rights filed by the six persons through their counsel, Mr Gabriel Uduafi.
The men are Messrs Oladapo Mohammed, Mohammed Sani and Tony Obinwa, and three Indians: Subramanian Srinivasan, Sanjay Kumar Sharma and Vishnu Joshi.
The EFCC had in July 2006 invited the businessmen over a petition it received from an Indian national, Mr Satish Chander Kashyap, who alleged that they duped him.
Kashyap had in the petition alleged that he asked Sharma to help him to establish a steel company in Nigeria, adding that the six businessman did not deliver  the money he gave Sharma to set up the company.
Uduafi, had told the court that each of the applicants was detained and eventually released from detention under stiff conditions.
The counsel submitted that after investigations into the matter, the police discovered that the applicants' arrest, detention and interrogation were based on false allegations.
"The legal advice of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice on the allegations of crime contained in the petition as investigated by the police, also clearly established that the complaints raised in the petition do not disclose any offence against the applicants," he added.
Uduafi prayed the court to compel the EFCC to pay N100 million to the applicants as damages.
The case has been adjourned till Sept. 8, 2008 for further hearing.