A Federal Capital Territory High Court, sitting in Abuja yesterday ordered that the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, be remanded in prison custody for contempt of court.

The contempt was a result of the anti-graft agency’s failure to comply with the court order.

A former Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force, Muawiyah Baba Idris, was in 2016 docked before trial Justice of the High Court of the FCT at Nyanya for allegedly receiving N40m and a Range Rover Sport, from one Hima Aboubakar of Societe D’Equipment Internationaux Nigeria Limited.

He was arraigned on a two-count criminal charge.

Following a separate proceeding the defendant initiated against the Commission, the high court, in 2018, ordered that the seized vehicle should be returned to him.

However, four years after the order was made, counsel to the defendant, Mr R.N Ojabo, drew the attention of the court to the fact that EFCC had yet to comply with it.

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Justice Chizoba Oji, in a ruling, said, “The Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is in contempt of the orders of this honourable court made on November 21, 2018, directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja to return to the applicant his Range Rover (Supercharge) and the sum of N40m.

Following the revelation that the anti-graft agency is yet to comply with the court order, Justice Orji, ordered the arrest and remand of the EFCC Chairman over his wilful disobedience to an extant order of the court.

“The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is in contempt of the orders of this honourable court made on November 21, 2018, directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja to return to the applicant his Range Rover (Supercharge) and the sum of N40, 000,000.00 (Forty Million Naira).

“Having continued wilfully in disobedience to the order of this court, he should be committed to prison at Kuje Correctional Centre for his disobedience, and continued disobedience of the said order of court made on November 21st, 2018, until he purges himself of the contempt”, Justice Orji held.

Meanwhile, the EFCC chairman has disclosed that the ruling has been appealed

But reacting to a question by journalists during the 2023 budget defence with the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption, Bawa said he has filed an appeal, saying the law should be allowed to take its natural cause.

“Well, we have appealed against it, so we allow the natural course of law to take its effect”, he said.