On Tuesday, August 30, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission received a N1 million fine for trespassing into an Abuja-based business.
The penalty was imposed by Justice Inyang Ekwo in response to the anti-graft agency’s agents’ invasion of Fezel Nigeria Limited, which is located at Plot 792 of the Cadastral Zone Industrial Estate in Idu-Abuja.
Invading the enterprise with fully armed EFCC personnel, he claimed, was a violation of the plaintiff’s constitutional rights by the anti-graft agency.
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Ekwo added that the company’s closure without good reason was a violation of sections 36, 37, 40, 43, and 44 of the EFCC Act.
The judge who ruled that the anti-graft agency’s actions amounted to a violation of the plaintiff’s rights to own property as enshrined in section 43 of the 1999 Constitution fined the EFCC N1 million naira after issuing an order of injunction prohibiting it, its officials, agents, and privies from disturbing, intimidating, harassing, or arresting any staff or any worker of the company.
The plaintiff must pay the fine as compensation for the violations of its constitutional rights.
