By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
Three days after Justice Yellim Bogoro of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) to release a Babcock University student, Miss Oluwateniola Omidiji who is being detained by the Commission for a debt owed by her widowed mother, Mrs Omoniyi Omidiji, the Commission is yet to obey the order of the court
Justice Bogoro gave the order following an application for the enforcement of her fundamental human rights brought by her counsel, Mr Emeka Chijioke (SAN).
Oluwateniola 19 is currently spending her 11th day in EFCC detention.
In granting the prayers of the student, the judge said: “I have considered the ex-parte application, the extant laws under which the application is brought, the affidavit supporting the application and submission of counsel, I hereby grant the reliefs sought”.
EFCC operatives arrested the level three student from her school premises on April 26, 2024. She was subsequently detained at the anti-graft agency’s detention facility at Ikoyi Lagos, where she is been kept since Justice Bogoro’s order was issued on Friday, May 3, 2024.
In the fundamental rights suit she filed marked FHC/L/CS/759/24, Miss Omidiji alleged that she was taken hostage by EFCC operatives over a debt which one Mr. Charles Nwoko alleged that her mother owes. Mr. Nwoko, who claimed he invested the sum of N100,000,000 into Mrs. Omidiji’s business sometime in 2020 came after Oluwateniola for the sum and the interest since her mother, his joint venture partner, is out of Nigeria.
EFCC had stated that during investigation, it discovered that four persons were named as directors in a company called Elisto Global Services Limited, which Mrs. Omidiji allegedly used to receive the money from Mr. Nwoko.
The directors are the Applicant’s mother;(the alleged creditor); Mr. Nwoko; the Applicant’s brother and the Applicant. Oluwateniola has cried out to the Court for relief after her school was stormed last Friday by EFCC operatives while she was writing exams. They laid siege to the school and took her away.
EFCC is alleged to have maintained that having been named by her mother as a director of Elisto, the 19-year-old Oluwateniola should answer for her mother’s presumed wrongs in the joint venture with Mr. Nwoko. Oluwateniola has been detained at EFCC’s facility at Ikoyi, until EFCC gets her mother’s attention. Other students have since continued with their exams.
But in the application to enforce her fundamental rights filed by her counsel Chijioke Emeka, (SAN), Oluwateniola contends that she was only a 16-year-old minor when her mother entered into partnership with Mr. Nwoko and she knows nothing about it. She contends that it is wrong for the EFCC to hold her hostage over a wrong alleged to have been done by her mother.
She further contends that the transaction is a civil matter and asked the Court to order the EFCC to leave her out of the issue and pay her N10,000,000 as damages for the violation of her fundamental rights to human dignity, personal liberty, fair hearing and freedom of movement.
Justice Bogoro adjourned further hearing in the suit till May 21, 2024.