A Federal Caapital Territory High Court sitting in Apo today vacated the remand order obtained by Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and refused to issue a fresh one on the grounds that ICPC has failed to prove that Isa has been arrested and is in their custody.
Ferdinand Isa, a legal practitioner has been having a running battle with ICPC for vacating a Post No Debit (PND) order placed on his client account by the commission.
The lawyer has since been invited by ICPC to answer questions based on representations he made on behalf of his client. But the legal practitioner approached the court to challenge what he termed the “illegal invitation to breach attorney-client privilege.
“I would not be emotionally blackmailed into honouring their illegal invitation just to prove that I have nothing to hide.
“That is how illegality gets institutionalised. I would not be a part of that. Lawyers cannot just be invited nor arrested to breach attorney-client privilege just by tagging them suspects. He stated.
It was earlier reported that the commission had arrested a primary school teacher, Mrs. Roseline Egbuha, three staff of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and a lawyer for allegedly laundering ₦550 million.
Mrs. Egbuha, a teacher with Ozala Primary School, Abagana, Anambra State, was earlier arrested in October, 2019 by ICPC and granted administrative bail, after an investigation into her financial transactions consequent upon the receipt of a petition, had allegedly shown her alleged involvement in money laundering.
Also arrested was a Compliance officer of GTB, Beckley Ojo, an Operations Manager, Chisomaga Daly-Okoro, a staff of the legal department of the bank, Sarah Ugamah and an external lawyer to GTB Nsikak Udoh.
They were alleged to have connived with the school teacher to perpetrate fraud.
ICPC, in a series of investigation, found that the school teacher had ₦539.5 million in her Guaranty Trust Bank account alleged to have been proceeds of money laundering from Malaysia.
She allegedly told investigators during interrogation that the money found in her account belonged to her children who lives abroad and that the money was sent by them for her to build an apartment in preparation for their returning to Nigeria.
A PND order was placed on the account to allow the ICPC to carry out further investigation, while a case of forfeiture of the suspected proceeds of crime was instituted against her in a court of law.
However, Mrs. Egbuha, through her Lawyer, FerdinandIsa, Esq., approached another court to challenge the restriction placed on her account by ICPC, as well as ask for the enforcement of her fundamental human right.
She was later rearrested with the staff of GTB and the external lawyer of the bank due to their alleged connivance in lifting the restriction placed on her account and the subsequent transfer of N550 million (principal sum and interest) into the GTB client’s account of FBI Legal, a law firm owned by Mrs. Egbuha’s lawyer, Ferdinand Isa.
In a petition to the Nigeria Bar Association Chairman, Ferdinand Isa insists that ICPC are trying to arrest him for simply representing his client within the bounds of law. “ICPC did not appeal the consent judgment vacating the PND order placed on my client’s account. They just started arresting Lawyers on the case. I am being haunted because I did my job as a Lawyer.” he stated.
In challenging the PND order placed on his account, Ferdinand Isa through his lead counsel, P. D. Pius informed the court that the entire prayers and affidavit of ICPC was intended to mislead the Honourable Court that he was in their custody; this is because they know that a remand order can only be granted when a suspect is in custody. “The section of ACJA (section 293) they premised their application on clearly stated thus.
“Section 294 of ACJA made it abundantly clear that the Court has to examine the reason for the arrest before granting a remand order but they misled the court into granting a remand order, while the court, thought by looking at their affidavit it was actually examining a real reason for an arrest. An arrest which never happened.
“Section 294 of ACJA made it clear that before a remand order is granted by the court, the court will examine the reason for the arrest and be satisfied that there is reasonable grounds to believe that the suspect has been involved in the commission of the alleged offence. In this case there is absolutely no offence.
“Ferdinand Isa simply did his job as a legal practitioner, obtained a valid court judgment for his client, held money in client’s account for his client, carried out client instructions to transfer money and earned his fees. All these are legal.
“So, when they said it was just an invitation, it is not true. They planned to detain Ferdinand Isa for 14 days and compel him to breach attorney-client privilege. They had already procured a remand order before they sent out their purported invitation letter. A remand order gotten before arrest is not just illegal but malicious and vindictive.” said Pius, Esq.
Today, the court vacated the remand order and refused to issue a fresh one on these grounds.
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