Oyo Assembly Drags EFCC To Court Over Probe Of Finance

Oyo Assembly, including Speaker and two other principal officers have dragged he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to court for investigating the accounts and financial activities of the third arm of government in the State.

The plaintiffs are contending among others, that there is no constitutional provision that empowers the EFCC to probe the Oyo State Assembly and its principal officers without a formal compliant from the state’s Auditor-General.

It was also added that the EFCC is an agency of the Federal Government and by so, “cannot look into and/or cause to investigate the accounts of any authority such as the 1st plaintiff (Oyo Assembly) and/agency in Oyo State,” in view of the specific provisions in sections 120,121, 125, 126 and127 of the Constitution.

Listed with the House of Assembly as the plaintiffs in the suit are Adebo Edward Ogundoyin (the Speaker); Sanjo Adedoyin Onaolapo (Majority Leader) and Asimiyu Niran Alarape (Minority Leader).

Meanwhile, The EFCC is the sole defendant.

The pendency of the suit, filed on May 5 this year at the Federal High Court, Ibadan has been communicated to the Chairman, EFCC Abdulrasheed Bawa and the Director, Legal Department via letters written by lawyer to the plaintiffs, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN).

The letters, with the court processes attached, were sighted by The Nation in Abuja on Sunday. They are dated May 5, but received at the Abuja headquarters of the EFCC on May 6, 2022