{"id":12605,"date":"2018-10-11T20:38:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T20:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=12605"},"modified":"2018-10-11T20:38:33","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T20:38:33","slug":"you-cannot-seize-assets-without-court-order-court-tells-buhari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=12605","title":{"rendered":"You cannot seize assets without court order, court tells Buhari"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot seize any corrupt assets of any Nigerian citizen without a valid order of a court permitting him to do so.<\/div>\n
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Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu who gave the clarification in a judgment delivered Thursday on the validity of the Presidential Executive Order 6 held that the powers given to the Attorney-General of the Federation AGF under the Executive Order 6 must be exercised in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.<\/div>\n
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Justice Ojukwu, who noted that the Order seemed to give the AGF the discretion on when to seek court\u2019s permission to seize any suspected property, said the AGF must, at all times, obtain a court order before seizing any asset.<\/div>\n
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The judge added that such application for the court\u2019s permission to seize any suspected asset could be made ex-parte.<\/div>\n
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However, the court dismissed the suit challenging the validity of the Presidential Executive Order 6, which seeks to temporarily seize assets linked to corruption and related offences.<\/div>\n
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President Muhammadu Buhari had on July 5, this year issued the order aimed at preserving assets linked with corruption and other related offences.<\/div>\n
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Justice Ojukwu, who dismissed the suit filed by two lawyers for lacking in merit, held that the\u00a0Presidential Executive Order was valid and does not breach the principle of separation of powers.<\/div>\n
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The Presidential Executive Order empowers the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to take steps, in liaison with relevant investigative agencies, to temporarily seize assets linked with corruption pending investigation and conclusion of trial to preserve such assets.<\/div>\n
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However, the two lawyers,\u00a0Ikenga Ugochinyere and Kenneth Udeze, had approached the court to void the Presidential Executive Order on grounds \u00a0that it violates the rights of citizens to own property.<\/div>\n
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Delivering judgment on the suit marked:\u00a0FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/740\/2018,\u00a0Justice Ojukwu, held that it was within the powers of the President, as granted by the Constitution, to issue Executive Orders for the execution of Executive policies, as long as such orders do not offend the doctrine of separation of powers.<\/div>\n
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The court in addition, held that the Executive Order 6 did not violate\u00a0the right of citizens to own property, but was informed by the President\u2019s willingness to preserve suspected property from being dissipated.<\/div>\n
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\nIn the suit which\u00a0has President Muhammadu Buhari and the AGF as defendants, the\u00a0plaintiffs contended that by the provisions of sections 5, 36 and 43 of the Constitution, the President lacked the power to issue the Executive Order.
\nThey argued that by issuing the Executive Order, the President allegedly encroached on the constitutionally guaranteed right of citizens to own properties, a right to which persons, who are standing trial or being investigated, but yet to be convicted, are also entitled.
\nThe plaintiffs added that by virtue of the provisions of sections 5, 36 and 43 of the Constitution, the President lacked the power to issue such an order \u201con matters not connected with the \u2018execution and maintenance of the Constitution, all laws made by the National Assembly and to all matters with respect to which the National Assembly has, for the time, being power to make laws.\u201d
\nThey urged the court to restrain both defendants from enforcing it and prayed for a declaration that \u201cthe act or conduct of the president in issuing the order interfere with, or encroach into the ownership, or otherwise of the assets or properties of any person without such person being found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction, is unconstitutional, null and void.
\nThe plaintiffs equally want a declaration \u201cthat the president cannot validly exercise his constitutional powers by deliberately undermining, limiting and\/or inhibiting the entrenched constitutional rights of any citizen of Nigeria to fair hearing vide the issuance of the Order.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot seize any corrupt assets of any Nigerian citizen without a valid order of a court permitting him to do so. Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu who gave the clarification in a judgment delivered Thursday on the validity of the Presidential Executive Order 6 held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}