{"id":93262,"date":"2025-03-11T21:53:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T21:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=93262"},"modified":"2025-03-11T21:53:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T21:53:38","slug":"efcc-claims-it-has-supreme-courts-nod-to-probe-dr-peter-odilis-8-year-tenure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=93262","title":{"rendered":"EFCC\u00a0claims it has Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0nod to\u00a0probe Dr. Peter Odili\u2019s 8-year tenure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is claiming that it has got a go-ahead to probe the eight-year tenre of former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, which it was stopped from probing 18 years ago<\/span><\/p>\n

A statement on the Supreme Court’s ruling, which the anti-graft agency issued on Tuesday night, reads in full: <\/span>
\nIn a landmark ruling on\u00a0Monday,\u00a0March 10, 2025, the Supreme Court of Nigeria dismissed appeals filed by the Attorney General of Rivers State and the Speaker of the State\u2019s House of Assembly against\u00a0the leave granted\u00a0\u00a0the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,\u00a0EFCC,\u00a0by the Court of Appeal to contest\u00a0an\u00a0order\u00a0of perpetual injunction\u00a0of Federal High Court, Port Harcourt\u00a0that barred \u00a0the\u00a0Commission from investigating \u00a0Dr.\u00a0Peter Odili’s tenure as governor\u00a0of the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dismissal\u00a0by a five-member panel\u00a0of the apex court,\u00a0led by Justice John Okoro\u00a0effectively\u00a0cleared\u00a0the\u00a0pathway for the\u00a0Commission to investigate Dr. Odili\u2019s eight year rule of the oil-rich state\u00a0and brought to an end\u00a0EFCC\u2019s\u00a0long-standing legal battle to probe the administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

The legal dispute took off in 2007 when Odili, who served as Rivers State governor from 1999 to 2007, obtained an order of\u00a0perpetual injunction from the Federal High Court, sitting\u00a0in Port Harcourt barring the EFCC from investigating, arresting, or prosecuting Odili, as well as prohibiting the anti-graft agency from examining the finances of the Rivers State Government during his tenure. Though the\u00a0EFCC has contested the\u00a0injunction\u00a0since 2008, the order has\u00a0effectively shielded Odili from any scrutiny by the Commission\u00a0for nearly two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, \u00a0the Court of Appeal granted the EFCC\u2019s request\u00a0for leave to appeal the Federal High Court\u2019s decision,\u00a0which\u00a0 prompted the Attorney General of Rivers State and the Speaker of the State\u2019s House of Assembly to file separate appeals at the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the appellate court\u2019s decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

On March 10, 2025, the Supreme Court convened to hear the appeal filed by the\u00a0litigants,\u00a0marked SC\/CV\/318\/2018.\u00a0 During the proceedings, Justice Okoro questioned the substance of the case, noting that the appeal was interlocutory in nature. The\u00a0litigants\u2019s lawyer, S. A. Somiari, SAN, argued that the appeal challenged the leave granted by the Court of Appeal for the EFCC to appeal the 2007 injunction. Justice Okoro, however,\u00a0interjected, stating, \u201cThis is not the type of appeal we hear here,\u201d and advised the parties to return to the Court of Appeal to have the substantive appeal heard before approaching the Supreme Court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recognizing the court\u2019s position, Somiari applied to withdraw the appeal while the EFCC\u2019s legal team, led by Abubakar Mahmud, SAN, alongside Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, and B. O. Obialo did not oppose the withdrawal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Justice Okoro dismissed the appeal, stating, \u201cThe appeal is dismissed, having been withdrawn without any objection.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A similar appeal, marked SC\/CV\/447\/2018, filed by the Speaker of the House of Assembly was dismissed on the same ground.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is claiming that it has got a go-ahead to probe the eight-year tenre of former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, which it was stopped from probing 18 years ago A statement on the Supreme Court’s ruling, which the anti-graft agency issued on Tuesday night, reads in full: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[164,1055,2243],"class_list":["post-93262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-efcc","tag-odili","tag-tenure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93262","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=93262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}