Rights violation: Okorocha demands N1bn from EFCC 

A former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for allegedly violating his fundamental human rights.

In the suit filed before an Abuja federal high court on May 27, the attorney-general of the federation is joined as the second respondent.

Okorocha is demanding N1bn as exemplary damages against the respondents and a public apology in at least three national newspapers.

Recall that the EFCC had, on May 24, besieged the Abuja home of the senator representing Imo west.
Operatives of the commission, in an attempt to disperse supporters of the former governor as well as journalists, shot sporadically in the air and also fired tear gas, after which they broke into Okorocha’s home and forcefully arrested him.

The anti-graft agency had said the arrest was necessitated by Okorocha’s refusal to attend his trial.
In the fresh suit, Okorocha is asking the court to declare that the siege on his house is unconstitutional and a flagrant abuse of his fundamental human rights.

The document partly reads, “A declaration that the attempt on the life of the applicant by the 1st respondent through the officers working under them who shot sporadically at the applicant’s compound, broke into the applicant’s home through the rooftop all the way into his bedroom and immediately apprehended the applicant’s family members’ phones including that of the applicant on the 24th day of May, is illegal.”

He also alleged that the EFCC cut off the electricity supply into his home on the day of the invasion.
Okorocha further prayed the court for an order restraining the respondents (jointly or severally) from intimidating him, threatening his life, arresting or detaining him.

A date is yet to be fixed for hearing the application.