Justice Joseph Oyewole of the Court of Appeal in Abuja has granted an ex-parte motion for a stay of proceedings filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the contempt proceedings commenced by the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.

The Court of Appeal also granted EFCC prayers to serve the processes in the appeal by substituted means on the former governor.

With Oyewole were Justices P. C. Obiora and Okon Abang.

The EFCC boss had been summoned by Justice Isa Abdullahi Jamil of the Kogi State High Court to appear on May 13, 2024 to show cause why he should not be committed to prison for disobeying the orders of the court.

The EFCC, however, appealed the ruling of the trial court and sought a stay of the proceeding of the court.

The EFCC boss is accused of carrying out “some acts upon which they (the EFCC) have been restrained” by the Court on February 9, 2024, pending the determination of the substantive Originating Motion.

But the Court of Appeal yesterday gave the orders for the stay of contempt proceedings after hearing Chief J.S.Okutepa (SAN) leading Eko Ejembi Eko (SAN), Abdulkareem Musa and David Ojogbane Akogu.

The court ordered for substituted service of all the processes in the case to be pasted at No 9 Bengazi Steet Wuse Zone 4 Abuja being the last known address of Yahaya Bello.

In granting the orders, the Appeal Court held that the motion ex-parte had merit and adjourned the hearing of the Motion on Notice to May 20, 2024.

The first Motion, which was moved by Okutepa sought an ex parte order staying the execution of the Orders made Ex-parte in Motion No. HCL/190M/2024 on the 25th day of April 2024, in the case of Alhaji Yahaya Bello vs. EFCC.

The second motion was for an order to serve the respondent Yahaya Bello all the processes in the appeal by substituted means through the mode stated on the face of the motion.

Ruling in Suit No: HCL/68M/2024 and Motion No: HCL/190M/2024, Justice I. A. Jamil had ordered that “the said act was carried out by the Respondent (EFCC) in violation of the order, which was valid and subsisting when it carried out the act.

The court said the EFCC action amounted to contempt of the court.

EFCC operatives had laid siege to the residence of the former Governor on April 17, 2024 to arrest him, despite a court order restraining them from taking such action, pending the determination of the Originating Motion.

Justice Jamil’s order was based on a motion ex-parte filed by Yahaya Bello through his lawyer, M.S. Yusuf in which he prayed the court for an order to issue and serve the Respondent (EFCC Chairman) with Form 49 Notice to show cause why Order of committal should not be made on Olukoyede.

Meanwhile, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has dragged Justice Jamil to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for issuing the order of contempt against the EFCC chairman.

Although HEDA dated its petition April 29th, 2024, it was acknowledged by the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria on May 2nd, 2024.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria is also the chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC).

The NGO, in the petition, accused Jamil for granting an order which sought to enforce “a non-existence and sundry misconduct.”

It described the action of the judge as gross abuse of his judicial powers “in a suit that not only the Kogi State High Court has become functus officio but the order sought to be enforced is non-existence at the time the ‘order to show cause’ was made.”

It added: “”We are of the view that the order to show cause granted as per Motion HCL/190M/2024 are designed to annoy, irritate, and portray the commission in bad light.

“The order to show cause was granted in a very disturbing and unnecessary circumstance. The order was granted by his Lordship in the above suit on the 25th day of April, 2024 in very questionable circumstances.

“The SUIT NO: HCL/68M/2023 BETWEEN ALHAJI YAHAYA BELLO v. ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION was filed on the 8th day of February, 2024 by Alhaji Yahaya Bello (“The Applicant”) for the enforcement of his fundamental rights seeking certain declaratory orders against the Commission.

“The crux/ objective of his claim as constituted in the originating motion was for the court’s enforcement of his fundamental rights particularly by restraining the commission from inviting, detaining, arresting and/or prosecuting the Applicant. The Originating Motion is herein attached and marked as “Exhibit HEDA 1.”

The litigation is a fallout of the N80 billion money laundering case against Bello by EFCC.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has unbundled the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

The commission made this known in a circular dated April 30, 2023, and jointly signed by its Chairman, Sanusi Garba, and Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni, respectively.

NERC said following the unbundling of the TCN, it has established the Nigerian Independent System Operator of Nigeria Limited (NISO). It noted that by this order, TCN is expected to transfer all market and system operation functions to the new company.

The commission had previously issued Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and System Operations (SO) licences to TCN, in accordance with the Electric Power Sector Reform Act.

However, the Electricity Act 2023, which came into effect on June 9, provided clearer guidelines for the incorporation and licensing of the independent system operator (ISO), as well as the transfer of assets and liabilities of TCN’s portion of the ISO.

Therefore, in the circular, the commission ordered the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to incorporate, unfailingly on May 31, a private company limited by shares under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020.

The company, NERC said, is expected “to carry out the market and system operation functions stipulated in the Electricity Act and the terms and conditions of the system operation licence issued to TCN.

It said: “The name of the company shall, subject to availability at Corporate Affairs Commission, be the Nigerian Independent System Operator of Nigeria Limited (NISO).

“Citing the object clause of the NISO’s memorandum of association (MOU) as provided in the Electricity Act, NERC said the company shall “hold and manage all assets and liabilities pertaining to market and system operation on behalf of market participants and consumer groups or such stakeholders as the Commission may specify.”

NERC said the new ISO will also be responsible for negotiating and entering into a contract for the procurement of ancillary services with independent power producers and successor generation licensees.

The Commission added that it will generally carry out market and system operations functions as specified under the Electricity Act and the terms of its licence in the interest of market participants and system users.

NERC said the company is expected to carry out all market and system operation-related contractual rights and obligations handed over by TCN.

The police command in Lagos state says it has arrested a gang of 10 suspected ritualists, who specialise in killing people and selling their body parts to ritualists.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest on Friday while parading them before journalists in Lagos.

Mr Hundeyin said that the leader of the gang, a 33-year-old man, Ademola Akinlosotu, used to exhume corpses from cemeteries and sell the parts to money ritualists.

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He said those arrested included a community chief, an Ifa priest, an Osun priestess, an Islamic cleric and a trado-medicine practitioner.

He said the suspects were arrested through intelligence reports from members of the public.

Mr Hundeyin said that a report obtained by the police also revealed that the suspects usually lure people to their hide-out, adding that such people would never come out alive again.

He said exhibits of different human parts were recovered from the suspects.

He said the police were on the trail of other suspects.

The spokesperson said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were completed.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the parade, the leader of the gang, Mr Akinlosotu, also made some scary confessions.

He said he got the human parts from dead bodies buried at the cemeteries, before graduating to actual killings – a job he had been doing for years.

Mr Akinlosotu said he moved to killing people to harvest parts because his clients requested fresh parts rather than dead body parts.

He said while he and some members of the gang would do the killings, he would supply the parts.

Mr Akinlosotu said he usually supplied the parts to a 52-year-old man, Ahmed Wahab, aka Alfa Bororo, who operated from Badagry in Lagos state and Ogun, to supply his clients.

According to him, a fresh human head is sold at N45,000 or N50,000 while a dry human head sells between N30,000 and N35,000; heart for N70,000 and hands for N50,000.

Mr Akinlosotu also said that he only killed two persons, which included a friend he met through social media before he was arrested.

He said before they killed anyone, the herbalist would be contacted to consult an oracle to determine whether the killing would be successful or would bring trouble.

The suspect alleged that a traditional ruler in Badagry requested him to kill his son because the son was giving him problems.

He also said that the day they were to carry out the killing was the day the friend he met online visited him, and he was killed.

Mr Akinlosotu said that all he needed when he killed was the person’s head, the heart and the hands.

(NAN)