Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has approached the Supreme Court, seeking to upturn the judgment of the Appeal Court in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, permitting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to freeze his personal accounts.
He has also filed a stay of execution of the judgement of the appeal court pending the determination of the case.
The accounts were in June 2016 frozen by the EFCC after they were linked to the $2.2billion arms deal fraud which occurred at the office of National Security Adviser under the erstwhile government of Goodluck Jonathan.
But the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti under the leadership of Taiwo Taiwo, unblocked the accounts after faulting the steps taken by the commission in barring Mr Fayose access to the accounts.
Thursday’s Appeal Court judgment, granted the prayers of the EFCC, and overruled the judgment of the Federal High Court.
The judge said although Mr Fayose enjoys constitutional immunity, his accounts, found to be linked to the proceeds of crime, were not covered by the said immunity.
Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, the counsel to Mr Fayose, Mike Ozekhome, said his client had appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court.
“We have already appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court on Friday,” said Mr Ozekhome, who also confirmed that a motion for a stay of execution had also been filed.
“The entire judgment of the Court of Appeal was perverse and did not take the facts and the law into consideration,” he said.
“In fact, the judgment was against an earlier ruling of the same Court of Appeal two days ago, when the EFCC wanted to adduce further evidence on the matter.
“The beauty of the law is that at the level of the high court, it is one head; at the Appeal Court, its three heads are better than one, but at the Supreme Court level, we may have five heads.”
The accounts, which were domiciled in Zenith Bank Plc, were first frozen in June 2016, in the wake of allegations that accounts received funds from the arms deal fraud.
Mr Fayose had arrived at the bank on the day it was frozen desiring to withdrawal, where bank officials informed him that they were under instructions from EFCC to freeze the accounts.
Citing Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, Mr Fayose claimed he enjoys immunity as a sitting governor, urging the Federal Government to fight corruption within the ambit of the law. (Premium Times)
