A Kano State High court sitting in Gezawa judicial division has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission boss, Kano zone to appear before it to show cause why the commission should not be held responsible for contempt of court and its head punished.
The commission had initially appeared before the court over an alleged flagrant disobedience of an order issued by the court on May 25 to release vehicles in its custody belonging to a Kano-based businesswoman, Zainab Usman Bichi, to the care of the deputy sheriff in the High Court of justice.
The court gave judgement in favour of the woman and ordered the commission to release her property and further ordered EFCC to pay N3 million as compensation.
Counsel to EFCC, Salisu Sani, requested the court to hold back the execution of its judgement, noting that the commission would appeal.
In his ruling, Justice Mohammed Yahya granted the request for stay of execution on the premise that the property belonging to Zainab be kept in the custody of the deputy sheriff pending the hearing and the determination of the appeal challenging the verdict by his court.
Due to the failure to comply with the court order directing EFCC to relocate her properties to the office of the deputy sheriff, the Kano businesswoman through her counsel, Barrister I. I. Wangida, filed a motion requesting the court to commit the head of operations, EFCC Kano zone to prison for violating an order of the court.
Counsel to EFCC told the court that the lawyer handling the matter could be in court due to he was away to Abuja on a special assignment,
In his ruling, Justice Mohammed Yahya order the commission to appear before the court on November 9 to explain and show cause why the zonal head of the commission in charge of Kano zone should not be held for committing contempt of court and to further demonstrate, why the EFCC boss should not be punished accordingly.
