The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has removed the name of Billionaire businessman and Founder of AITEO Group, Mr. Benedict Peters, from its list of Wanted Persons published on the Official website of the Commission.
The move according to the Media Adviser to Mr. Benedict Peters, OfforDile, is in compliance with the Judgment of the High Court of the FCT, Abuja, delivered by Justice Othman Musa on March 22nd 2018.
The Court had ordered the anti corruption agency to immediately remove the name of the billionaire businessman from their wanted persons list published on the Commission website.
Recall that on the 15th of August 2016, the EFCC declared Peters wanted in connection with an ongoing investigation(though the court has since declared him innocent of those allegations) without first following all the laid down procedures which led Peters to approach the High Court to seek redress for the injustice done to him.
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In the landmark ruling delivered of March 22nd, Justice Musa had held that though the EFCC had powers to declare somebody wanted, it must be done in strict compliance with the rule of law and order of the court.
He ruled that since the action was done in violation of the provisions of the law thereby hurting and infringing on the rights of peters, his declaration as a wanted person/the uploading of his data on the website of the EFCC was unconstitutional and void.
Musa therefore, ordered EFCC to remove his name from their website where wanted persons list are uploaded immediately.
However, the EFCC did not comply with the order till today, November 6, when it finally complied with the order of the court and pulled Peters name from the list.
It did not give any reasons for its failure to comply earlier than now.
