We are not behind your difficulties, responds EFCC Ekweremadu

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has responded to embattled former Senate Deputy Speaker Ike Ekweremadu, saying the Commission was behind his denial of bail by UK authorities.

Ekweremadu previously told Judge Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja that the EFCC was responsible for his misfortunes in the London court where he was detained for alleged organ harvesting.

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The senator's allegations were contained in a motion he filed in the Federal High Court seeking a court order to set aside the interim order granted in favor of the Federal Government for the confiscation of his 40 properties within and outside the country.< /p>

However, in its counter-affidavit, the EFCC argued that the allegations made against it by Ekweremadu's son showed that he was unaware of the criminal prosecution proceedings against his parents before the London court, which is why he believed the EFCC "has a stake in his parents' predicament and labors."

The EFCC, while not denying having communicated with the UK authorities, stated that its letter of July 18, 2022 to the Crown Prosecution Service, UK, was in response to the Crown Prosecution letter of July 17, 2022" was just routine for a government agency counterpart in accordance with global best practices for sharing information with other law enforcement and other agencies in the US and UK

"The Respondent's response to the Crown Prosecution Service was never an incitement or encouragement to the Crown Prosecution Service to detain Senator Ike Ekweremadu or anyone else, as the Respondent was not neither related to nor interested in the subject matter of the investigation in the UK, namely the trafficking of a person for the purpose of exploitation, i.e. the removal of organs.

"The Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK are independent agencies with wide discretion in carrying out their duties/responsibilities and cannot be influenced by anyone, including the defendant.

"The Respondent, being a premier and flagship law enforcement agency, shares information and intelligence with other law enforcement agencies around the world, including the Metropolitan Police of UK, US FBI, Russian KGB and other renowned law enforcement agencies.

“Thus, the innuendoes, innuendos, speculations and presumptions that manifest themselves in the aforementioned paragraphs of Lloyd Ekweremadu’s affidavit are unfounded and unkind to the respondent,” he said.

The EFCC, which claimed to have investigated Ekweremadu for money laundering so far, argued that no law requires it to initiate forfeiture proceedings or criminal charges against a suspect in a time frame or a given number of years.

He added that "the filing of the instant forfeiture proceedings was just a coincidence with the arrest of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice N. Ekweremadu in the UK.

EFCC lawyer, Sylvanus Tahir, SAN pleaded otherwise and asked the court to dismiss the petition since the case was not against Ekweremadu, but against the property, on which some people and organizations were already demanding.

Meanwhile, Judge Inyang Ekwo adjourned until January 25 next year for the ruling.

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