Appeal Court stops EFCC from blocking Fayose’s account

The Appeal Court, sitting in Ado-Eki­ti, Ekiti State has dismissed the application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to restrain the Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fay­ose from operating his accounts in Zenith Bank Plc.

It described the appli­cation as lacking in merit, stressing that the “EFCC did not come with clean hands on the application for an injunction it filed because it suppressed material facts. For ex­ample, a similar applica­tion the EFCC filed was earlier refused by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Fed­eral High Court, Ado Ekiti.”

Governor Fayose’s counsel, Chief Mike Oze­khome (SAN), had ar­gued that the application filed by the EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, was un­meritorious.

On December 13, 2016, Justice Taiwo or­dered the EFCC to un­freeze the accounts of Governor Fayose, saying the action of the com­mission was against due process and that the anti-graft agency did not fol­low the rules in freezing the governor’s accounts.

The EFCC had ap­pealed the judgment of the Federal High Court and sought an injunc­tion, restraining the gov­ernor from operating the accounts pending the determination of the ap­peal.