Five days after he was granted bail by a judge, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has yet to comply with a court order for the release of Bello Adoke, a former attorney-general, charged with corruption.
As part of a controversial strategy being deployed to keep Mr Adoke in perpetual custody, anti-graft agents and other prosecution officials working on the matter have been stonewalling Mr Adoke’s release since January 30 when the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory approved his release on bail.
Mr Adoke was granted bail on Thursday afternoon by Justice Idris Kutigi. The terms included N50 million and a surety with residential properties in Abuja.
He met all the bail conditions by Thursday evening, a few hours after they were imposed, and the judge subsequently signed a warrant for his release.
Rather than comply with the order to release Mr Adoke, however, EFCC officials instead demanded an enrolment order of the former attorney-general’s release warrant.
‘Enrolment of order’ is an official summary of a court ruling prepared and issued to parties in a case until the full version is available.
The demand infuriated Mr Adoke legal team as they wondered why the EFCC would impose its own conditions in a manner that undermined the release warrant that had been duly signed by a judge.
Nonetheless, Mr Adoke’s lawyers, led by senior counsel Mike Ozekhome, returned to court on Friday to iron out the additional conditions imposed by the EFCC.
They presented the enrolment order and other necessary release documents signed by Justice Kutigi on Friday. The registrar for Mr Kutigi’s court also followed Mr Adoke’s team to the EFCC on Friday to understand why the former AGF was still being held.
But all the efforts were frustrated. Mr Adoke was never released and his legal team members were simply tossed from one office to another.
