Hot Updates and Education Portal: Federal High Court in Lagos

The Applicant Is Terribly......

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The EFCC’s Head of Operations, Mr. 
Iliyasu Khwabe; the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase; and a 
Deputy Superintendent of Police with the X-Sqaud, Zone II Police Command
 Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos, Ibrahim Dantoro, were also joined.A Federal 
High Court in Lagos on Tuesday granted an application to join the 
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as a co-defendant in a N1.5bn 
fundamental rights enforcement suit.Yerima and Antia, who were arrested 
for alleged fraud, are urging the court to fault their alleged transfer 
by the EFCC to the Zone II Police Command for further investigations and
 torture.The applicants in the suit are one Alhaji Suleiman Yerima, who later died in Kirirkiri prisons, and one Mr. Uwem Antia.They want the court to declare that it
 was unlawful for the EFCC and the police to be investigating them 
simultaneously and based on same petitions.They are claiming damages in the sum 
of N1.5bn jointly and severally against the police, EFCC and the authors
 of the petitions that the security agencies acted upon.Some other defendants in the suit are Capital Field and Investment 
Trust Limited, Smiles and Light Limited, Gladys Aginwa and Mr. Denis 
Ale.Meanwhile, the EFCC had, on June 24, 
2015, arraigned Yerima and Antia before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of a 
Lagos State High Court in Ikeja.Lawal-Akapo had, immediately after 
their arraignment, ordered their remand in Kirikiri and adjourned to 
take their bail application.The applications could, however, not 
be heard till Yerima died in prison on July 17, 2015 due to 
complications on the injury allegedly inflicted on him by the police 
during investigations.

According to the prisons authorities, 
Yerima died after he “became unconscious during the Eid-el-fitri prayer 
to mark the end of Ramadan fast.”Lawal-Akapo, while proceeding on 
annual vacation, had adjourned the case till November 9, 2015, but 
advised the accused to take their bail applications before the vacation 
judge.But by the time the bail applications were brought before Justice Iyabo Akinkugbe on August 4, 2015 Yerima had died.His lawyer, Mr. A.F. Adah, had urged the judge to grant the bail post-humously or to give direction in the case.But the judge struck out the bail application, saying “there is no further direction to be given.”Counsel for Yerima’s co-accused, Antia, Mr. S.A. Salaudeen, however urged the court to admit his client to bail.In the five-ground post-humous bail 
application, Adah had accused the EFCC of stalling the hearing of the 
bail application till Yerima died in prison due to the maltreatment he 
allegedly suffered in the hands of the police.Salaudeen, in the bail application for
 Antia, said, “The applicant is terribly ill as a result of injuries 
sustained during his detention and torture in the police custody.“The applicant’s health condition has 
deteriorated in prison. The first defendant, who was charged along with 
the applicant, died two weeks after his detention because he was not 
given timely treatment by the prisons authorities.“The applicant is in danger of losing his life if not granted bail.”