Court of Appeal backs N12m damages for Ubani from EFCC

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The Court of Appeal in Abuja has thrown out an appeal by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC was challenging a judgment that awarded Monday Ubani, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), N12 million for his unlawful detention in 2019.

On Thursday, a panel of three judges agreed on the decision to uphold the compensation.

The court also ordered the EFCC to pay N300,000 in costs. This information was shared in a statement from PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday.

Mr Ubani is a lawyer and was the former vice-president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). He was not a SAN when the EFCC detained him in March 2019. He became a SAN in 2024.

How the dispute started

The issue began when the EFCC declared Ngozi Olejeme, a former chairperson of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), wanted. This was over accusations of financial crimes linked to her time at the agency.

Mr Ubani said he helped convince her to return to Nigeria to face the allegations. After that, she got administrative bail, with him and former Senator Christopher Enai as her sureties.

A surety is someone who guarantees that a person on bail will follow the rules of their release, such as showing up when needed by investigators or a court.

Later, the EFCC claimed it could not reach Ms Olejeme and asked her sureties to find her. In March 2019, the EFCC arrested Mr Ubani and Mr Enai.

Mr Ubani insisted he was not to blame for her disappearance. He pointed out that he had brought her back to Nigeria and questioned why the EFCC held him accountable after they visited her home and could not find her.

That same month, Judge Sylvanus Oriji of the FCT High Court in Apo ordered the EFCC to either charge the two men in court or let them go on bail. The judge also granted them bail with certain conditions.

But the EFCC did not follow the court order on time. This led their lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, who is also a SAN, to start contempt proceedings against the acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu.

In January 2022, Judge Oriji ruled that the EFCC's arrest and detention of Mr Ubani violated his rights.

The judge stated that a surety could be asked to explain or lose the bail bond if the person they stood for could not be found, instead of being arrested and detained.

He declared the detention illegal and awarded Mr Ubani N12 million in damages but did not order the EFCC to issue a public apology.

Unhappy with the ruling, the EFCC appealed to the Court of Appeal. They questioned the trial court's authority and the compensation amount awarded.

Now, the appellate court has dismissed the appeal and confirmed the trial court's authority.