Almost a month after he ordered a temporary freezing of the Guaranty Trust Bank account belonging to Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, Justice Abulazeez Anka of a Federal High Court in Lagos, on Monday vacated the freeze order.
Justice Anka, had on Feb. 7, ordered the freeze and forfeiture of N75million found in Ozekhome’s Guaranty Trust Bank account, following an ex parte motion filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, claiming that the N75m in the account were proceeds of crime.
Ozekhome had filed an application, seeking an order, to discharge the interim orders made ex parte and to restrain the EFCC and its privies from dealing in anyway that amounted to operating the account.
In his ruling on Monday, Justice Anka vacated the interim freeze order, and dismissed the opposing counter-affidavit of the EFCC, stating that although it was not in doubt that the said sum of money came from the Ekiti State Gov., Mr Ayodele Fayose, Ozekhome could not be held liable.
He reasoned that there was no restriction on the said governor’s account before payment was made to the law firm of Ozekhome.
Anka also noted that the freeze order earlier obtained by the EFCC in respect of Fayose’s account had been vacated by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Ado Ekiti Division of the court.
He said, “There is no argument whatsoever as to the source of the funds as rightly argued by learned counsel for the EFCC, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo.
“The question is, can the respondent/applicant be liable for any infraction as at the time he received the amount in his account?
“His evidence was not controverted that the said proceeds were unencumbered as at the time they were transferred into the account of Mike Ozekhome Chambers, as rightly argued by Chief Mike Ozekhome.
“The Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Coram Taiwo J, ordered the unfreezing of the said account belonging to Gov. Ayodele Fayose.
“In both the order and the depositions, the account was evidently and manifestly unfrozen, so such an argument, therefore, by Mr Oyedepo, Esq. cannot hold water.’’
The judge consequently held that sufficient grounds exist to reject the counter affidavit by the EFCC. The court accordingly vacated the freeze order.
