February 11, 2020

Yesterday, Mohammed Adoke, former Attorney General of Nigeria under Jonathan, got his freedom after four years of running, one month of detention in Dubai, his extradition, and nearly two months of detention by the EFCC. But he barely made it, thanks to the courage of Justice Binta Nyako. Adoke was granted bail last week by Justice Kutige at the FCT High Court. He met all the conditions of the bail granted by Kutige. To make sure they would not release him as ordered by Kutige, they charged him to a Federal High Court, having refused to release him on the fictional ground that he had not yet deposited his passport to the Court. It was obvious that the EFCC was playing a fast one by keeping the passport of Adoke and refusing to surrender it to court on frivolous technicality. But Nigeria must really be a wicked place. Why forget yourself and treat the former attorney general so shabbily? There were two dirty tricks the EFCC played against Adoke. First, they could have charged him together in the same court. But they chose to charge him partially in different courts, just to cause him to go through bail application twice. But the Federal High Court judge undercut that by granting him bail on the same terms and condition as the FCT High Court meaning that Adoke did not have to meet two separate sets of bail conditions. Second, part of the bail conditions granted by the FCT High Court was for Adoke to surrender his passport to the Court. But since the EFCC seized the passport when they arrested him on December 19, 2019, Adoke was not in possession of his passport and could not surrender the passport. And EFCC refused to surrender it claiming that the order to surrender the passport was not directed to the EFCC, but to Adoke. That shows you how dishonest and vindictive the EFCC officials could be. In the end, they undermine confidence in the system. They held Adoke because "he has not yet surrendered his passport to the court" even though the reason he could not do so was because the EFCC was with the passport and refused to give it back to him. However, Justice Nyako cut through the game by ordering the EFCC to surrender the passport immediately. This kind of game confirms that almost every aspect of Nigerian law enforcement is driven by corruption and personal political motive. Adoke did it to others, and now he receives the same treatment.