Ohanazeze Ndigbo, yesterday, accused Federal Government of masterminding the ordeal of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, in the United Kingdom (UK).

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation was reacting to the ruling of a Federal High Court, in Abuja, ordering interim forfeiture of 40 properties allegedly linked to Ekweremadu.

A statement by the National President of Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), Okwu Nnabuike, said it is immoral to attack a man whose hands are tied to his back and unable to defend himself.

OYC lamented what it described as a pattern of persecution and humiliation of people from one part of the country by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), insisting it is time to end the control of EFCC by one section of the country through the immediate appointment of a new Chairman of the agency from the South.

The group said: “The ex-parte interim assets forfeiture order by Federal High Court, Abuja, is, to say the least, cruel, and whoever filed that suit at a time Ekweremadu is incarcerated, and unable to defend himself has no conscience or regard for cardinal pillars of law and justice, particularly the principle of audi alteram partem (let the other side be heard as well).

“This has also proved our suspicion, all along, that some highly placed personalities are behind Ekweremadu’s UK ordeal.”

Ohanaeze wondered when it became a crime, under Nigerian laws, to own properties or be involved in the property business, especially since EFCC could not pin any crime on Ekweremadu for over six years that they have been on his matter.

“His name was not mentioned anywhere in scandals supposedly uncovered by EFCC since the All Progressives Congress (APC) came to power.

“Moreover, EFCC’s claim that its investigators traced to Ekweremadu’s properties, which he had dutifully declared in his assets declaration, is ridiculous, and not different from Mungo Park travelling thousands of kilometres from Scotland to discover the River Niger.

“With an order of a court directing the EFCC to publish the said properties in national dailies for any interested persons to show cause why they should not be permanently forfeited to the government, how is Ekweremadu, who is in custody in the UK, going to have access to documents or properly brief his lawyers to show that the said properties were not proceeds of crime?” (The Guardian)

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