By Oladele Oguntimehin
Chief Government Ekpemulopo, a former Niger Delta militant leader popularly known as Tompolo, has sued the Federal Government of Nigeria over the N45.9bn fraud charges filed against him.
Tompolo approached the Federal High Court in Lagos through his lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, seeking an order restraining the Federal Government and its agencies from further proceeding with the N45.9bn fraud charges filed against him. Tomopo is contending that section 221 and 306 of the administration of criminal justice Act, 2015 which prohibits him from seeking a stay of proceedings in his trial, are infringing on his constitutional rights to fair hearing.
He is urging the court to prevent the Federal Government, the EFCC and the IGP from deploying those sections of the law against him whereby abolishing sections 221 and 306 of the ACJA The suit followed an appeal filed by Tompolo against the dismissal of his application seeking to set aside the arrest warrant issued against him by Justice Ibrahim Buba on February 8, 2016.
Tompolo is urging the Court of Appeal to disqualify Justice Buba from presiding over his case while Adegboruwa further stated that Justice Buba must suspend all actions on the charges against his client pending the decision of the Court of Appeal.
In January this year the EFCC had charged Tompolo alongside nine others before Justice Buba for an alleged N45.9bn, but Tompolo had repeatedly turn down the summons issued on him by the court to appear to answer the charges.
According to report, Justice Buba had on two occasions, January 14 and February 8, issued a bench warrant against him and ordered his arrest.
The EFCC subsequently placed a newspaper advertorial declaring Tompolo wanted and also obtained a court order to seize all his known assets pending when he will submit himself to the court.
But efforts to arrest and produce him in court had proved abortive, a development which forced the EFCC to apply to the court to separate his trial from that of his co-accused persons.