By Gift Chapi Odekina
The Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives has applauded the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which vacated the Court’s earlier interim assets forfeiture Order on 40 properties allegedly linked to former Deputy President of the Senator, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
The leader of The Caucus, Rep. Ndudi Elumelu made this known in a statement in Abuja.
According to him, the caucus commends the Judiciary for its courage in again reinforcing the tenets of fairness and even-handedness in the pursuit of justice as demonstrated in the Judgment.
“As lawmakers, our Caucus further holds that the Federal High Court has, by this judgement, further strengthened the confidence and trust of the citizens in the Judiciary as the last hope of the common man, particularly in a democratic setting.
“The Caucus strongly hopes and believes that in all, justice will prevail at the end of the day in Sen. Ekweremadu’s matter.
Recall that the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, set aside an interim forfeiture order on 40 landed properties linked to a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice.
The court, which had issued the order on 4 November, 2022, but ruled on Friday that the application for forfeiture filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was not brought in good faith and ought to be struck out.
The judge, Inyang Ekwo, further held that the EFCC failed to disclose material facts about the matter.
Mr Ekwo noted that EFCC had launched the proceedings against Mr Ekweremadu, who is being held in the United Kingdom (UK) over an illegal harvesting allegation, despite knowing about his predicament which would hinder him from defending himself.
