News
Police, EFCC and a citizen’s dilemma
By Gbade Ogunwale
I filed a petition with the Federal Capital Territory Police Command seeking redress for an injustice I suffered. The petition, dated March 23, 2021, detailed a case of unlawful confiscation of my properties and a criminal breach of trust.
The suspect had deceptively confiscated my Honda Accord car, a brand new Dell laptop and a colour HP Printer.
But weeks after the petition was submitted, there was no word from the Police. Worried by the deafening silence, I contacted the Commissioner of Police at the time to inquire why the petition was not acted on. But the CP said the issues raised in my petition were not within the purview of the Police.
According to him, they were within the mandate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Consequently, he advised that I file the petition with the EFCC. Following his advice, I filed a fresh petition dated April 19, 2021, and addressed it to the Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa. It was officially received and acknowledged.
It is pertinent to state that in my separate petitions to the Police and EFCC, I supplied the suspect’s mobile telephone contacts alongside mine, to ease the investigation. But several months after, there was no word from the EFCC either.
A few days after I filed the petition, I got hints that the suspect had been arrested by EFCC operatives. I waited in vain for the anti-graft agency to contact me to enable me state my case against the suspect. I then filed a reminder, dated July 7, 2021, to the EFCC, stating among others, that I was aware of the suspect’s arrest and wondered why I was not invited to state my case against him.
I got no reply. I was forced to call the attention of the EFCC Chair Bawa to the matter. I forwarded the cover pages of my original petition and the subsequent reminder to Mr Bawa through WhatsApp. Almost immediately, the EFCC chair responded through a WhatsApp call, saying that neither the original petition nor the reminder was brought to his attention.
Mr Bawa said he was in Europe for some official engagements at the time but he promised to make his findings right away and get across to me through his men on the ground.
Less than two hours later, I received a telephone call from a Special Assistant to the Chairman, Ngunan Kakwagh. The aide told me that the EFCC had indeed prepared a written reply to my petition and the subsequent reminder but that the agency could not locate the address for onward delivery to me. I had to be physically present at the agency’s head office the very next day where I was handed the letter.
The letter, dated September 3, 2021, reads: “We refer to your letter dated 19th April 2021 and reminder dated 7th July 2021 addressed to the Executive Chairman of the Commission on the above subject matter. We have reviewed your petition and found that it does not fall within the Commission’s mandate.
“Consequently, your petition was referred to the Inspector General of Police vide letter ref. no. EFCC/EC/IGP/09/534 dated 11th May 2021 for investigation. Please accept the assurances of the Executive Chairman’s highest regards and respect.” Kakwagh signed the letter on behalf of the EFCC Chairman.
The letter was silent on the issue of the arrest of the suspect, which I raised in the reminder petition. I demanded to know why the suspect was arrested without me being contacted. The aide admitted that the suspect was indeed arrested then. But the aide said he was arrested based on a separate petition filed against him by a different complainant. A coincidence? But does that not say enough about the suspect acting true to character?
In that letter, the EFCC claimed to have referred my petition to the IGP vide a letter dated May 11, 2021. But it took the personal intervention of the EFCC chair for me to get it on September 3, 2021, which is four months after. The wording of the letter gave the impression that it was written after a review of my original petition of April 19 and the subsequent reminder of July 7. If this was the case, then EFCC’s referral letter of May 11 is deemed to have preceded the review of the reminder of July 7 by 51 days.
I filed the petition with the office address of the Abuja Bureau of The Nation Newspapers for easy accessibility. But the EFCC claimed they could not trace the address, so the letter was kept in their files for four months. However, at the intervention of the Chairman, they found the telephone number with which they contacted me.
I proceeded to the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to trace the said referral letter from EFCC. There was no trace of the letter there. A concerned police officer at the Force Headquarters advised I file a fresh petition with the FCT Police Command.
I was emotionally drained at this point so I had to take a break to reflect and to allow me to gain some inner strength.
I resumed the pursuit about a year later with a fresh petition dated September 13, 2022, addressed to the FCT Commissioner of Police. There, I met a new CP who, without much ado, received the petition by himself. After reading through it, directed that it be sent to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for investigation.
After days of surveillance, the suspect was brought in for interrogation. He admitted being in possession of my car, laptop and printer but he said he was not prepared to return them to me.
After days of running back and forth, the police ordered him to return the three items in his possession to me. On his own terms, he asked to be given three weeks to replace the laptop and the printer. He set a four-month timeline to either return the car or pay a mutually agreeable value for it.
But that was just one leg of the two-pronged petition. The other leg, which is much more high-ended, bordered on criminal breach of trust. Investigation into that aspect, which is considered to be within the mandate of the EFCC, is now being kept in abeyance at the CID.
After much dithering, the suspect replaced the brand-new laptop with an unserviceable one that looked like something he picked from a junkyard.
Also, he procured a badly refurbished printer as a replacement for the new one he collected from me. I promptly indicated my rejection of the unserviceable laptop. The two items have been gathering dust at the CID office since then.
The four-month timeline he set himself to replace or pay for the car expired on January 31, 2023. But he asked for a further extension of time till February 28, 2023. It was granted but he still defaulted. Apparently, as a decoy, he obtained my bank account details through the Police to enable him to transfer the agreed sum to me. He never did.
I called the investigating CID officer on March 14 to report that the suspect had yet to pay up. The officer replied that the suspect had been ignoring his telephone calls and text messages. And as you are reading this piece, the suspect is still being evasive while police investigators appear helpless. That’s where we are now.
I must state here that the investigation process at the CID has not only been frustrating but also distressing. As the complainant, I had to, on two occasions, wait with the investigators for the suspect to arrive for scheduled appointments.
On one occasion, I had to leave after waiting for an hour without the suspect showing up. At every turn, they made it look like I was begging for some underserved favour. That has been the attitude and body language of the suspect, and even the investigating police officers.
In the course of arresting and investigating the suspect, I was made to part with N50,000 for “logistics”. I was also made to pay an additional N100,000 for the “processing of documents”. That’s besides other incidental expenses I incurred along the line. A case of double jeopardy?
Worried by the frustrating turn of events, I approached a certain EFCC officer who I fortuitously ran into at a recent public event. I narrated my experiences to him following which he requested to see a copy of my petition. I gave him a copy a few days later and I waited for his opinion.
After going through the contents, he opined that I ought to have filed the petition with the EFCC instead of the Police. He was categorical that it’s purely a matter for the EFCC – that is the aspect bordering on criminal breach of trust.
According to him, it shouldn’t take the EFCC much time to crack the case and resolve it decisively. He was momentarily flustered when I handed him a copy of the EFCC letter that referred the petition to the Police. Reading through the letter, he paused for a moment, reflected briefly, and with measured subtlety, said: “Something must have gone wrong somewhere.”
There and then, he advised I withdraw the petition from the Police and file a fresh one with the EFCC. It’s quite distressing that a petition that originated in 2021 is being tossed back and forth, first from the Police to EFCC, then back to the Police. Now, I am being advised to withdraw the petition from the Police and file it afresh with the EFCC. Again?
The question is: will the EFCC take a second look at the petition if it is withdrawn from the Police? What if the agency decides to, once again, send it back to the Police as it did in the first place? Will it not be back to ground zero? It has been an unending circle of motion without movement from 2021 to date. The law, truly, is a dumb ass that even the crooked can ride. So where do I go from here?
Ogunwale works with The Nation newspaper.
From Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s former President, came a mild rebuke to Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, who in assessing the quality of his six-year tenure as Nigerian leader, all but dismissed him as “inexperienced.”
Atiku, a guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television, last week, told his host that Jonathan was inexperienced, saying his tenure was marked by notable missteps.
“I know Goodluck Jonathan very well. He is a decent young man, but also inexperienced, and I believe that contributed to his inability to manage the affairs of the country, particularly when he was faced with challenges,” Atiku, currently chasing the number one job the former President exited in 2015 for the seventh time, said.
But in a measured riposte at the 2025 Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria awards ceremony in Abuja on Monday, Jonathan, while acknowledging that he must have made some mistakes, argued that errors were inevitably with human beings as only God could be perfect,
Reacting to Atiku’s remarks, he told his audience: “So not too long ago, a very senior politician said, ‘Oh, Jonathan was too young and probably that’s why he made mistakes.’
“If I made mistakes, yes, nobody who becomes a governor or a president will say you did not make mistakes. Even when you promote yourself to the level of a god, you become a deity.
“All human beings must make mistakes. I became president in 2010 at the age of 53. I left in 2015 at the age of 58, and they say I was too young. Must it have been 100 years before I ran the affairs of the state?
“I’m talking to diplomats, so I can say that during my period, I knew what I did for us to appear in the UN Security Council two times… If I were so naive, I don’t think I would have been able to navigate through that process.”
Jonathan also spoke on regional affairs, warning that political instability remains a major obstacle to economic growth across West Africa. He stressed that without stable governance systems, meaningful development in the sub-region would remain elusive.
“We cannot progress economically if we are very unstable societies politically,” he said.
Jonathan noted that while the founders of ECOWAS envisioned strong economic cooperation, persistent political crises have hindered progress, particularly in enforcing democratic standards among member states.
“That means that ECOWAS must interfere with the internal affairs of the states, and the issue of sovereignty becomes a problem,” he said.
Jonathan urged leaders in the region to work collectively towards stability, saying, “The heads of states of ECOWAS must continue to work together and agree on concrete terms and make sure that the sub-region is politically stable.”
He added that economic integration efforts would falter without solid democratic institutions and called on Nigerian diplomats to properly document foreign policy experiences for future leaders.
Paying tribute to ECOWAS founders, including former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, Jonathan described the creation of the bloc in 1975 as a bold and necessary step toward regional unity and economic integration.
Gowon, who was also honoured at the event, recounted the origins of ECOWAS, linking its formation to post-war diplomatic engagements across West Africa.
According to him, “It was as a result of the various efforts of all Nigerians when we went through a very difficult period, and I had to go to the various countries to say thank you.”
He said discussions with regional leaders at the time led to a shared vision for broader cooperation.
“Why don’t we also think about having something that we can at least have in agreement for all of us when we are working together?” he said.
Gowon emphasised that ECOWAS was the product of collective effort rather than individual ambition, crediting government institutions and civil servants for its success.
“This would not have been possible without the support of all the staff of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development,” he stated.
He added that the recognition bestowed on him should be shared widely.
“The honour that is being done to me today should really go back to all the staff that worked so hard to make sure that this became a reality,” he said.
Also speaking, the President of the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria, Joe Keshi, highlighted the importance of honouring excellence in diplomacy, noting that the awards celebrate dedication and service to Nigeria and the continent.
“Diplomacy is one profession where success is often invisible, reflected not by news coverage, but by maintained stability, prevented conflicts, cultivated partnerships,” he said.
Keshi noted that the event coincides with the 50th anniversary of ECOWAS, describing the organisation as “a bold experiment in regionalism,” and urged diplomats to adapt to evolving global challenges.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Waheed Shaibu, also praised Gowon, describing him as a symbol of national unity and visionary leadership.
He said the recognition offers a chance to reflect on a legacy “defined by visionary leadership, courage, and unwavering commitment to the unity, stability, peace, and progress” of Nigeria.
Shaibu added that Gowon’s leadership reflected “patriotism, resilience, and a profound sense of duty,” while commending ARCAN for its continued contribution to diplomatic discourse and Nigeria’s global engagement.
After months of official hiatus, the Federal Government, on Tuesday finally got on the way with the trial of those fingered in the alleged plot to oust President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through a coup, including Timipre Sylva, former Minister of State for Petroleum.
The move, which apart from the former Governor of Bayelsa State, came with the filing of a 13-count charge before the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the alleged plotters including Mohammed Ibrahim Gana, a retired General in the Nigerian Army, Erasmus Ochegobia Victor, a retired Naval Captain, Ahmed Ibrahim, a serving police inspector, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Goni, and Abdulkadir Sani.
Sylva, whose name surfaced as one of the plotters when the news first broke and believed to be the major financier of what would have led to another military government in Nigeria after the last ended in 1999, was listed as being at large – on the run.
The charge, filed on Monday by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), accuses the defendants of offences ranging from alleged treason and terrorism to failure to disclose security intelligence and money laundering linked to terrorism financing.
The prosecution alleged that the defendants conspired in 2025 “to levy war against the state to overpower the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, an offence punishable under Section 37(2) of the Criminal Code.
The Federal Government further alleged that the defendants had prior knowledge of a planned treasonable act involving one Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma’aji and others, but failed to alert authorities.
Furthermore, the defendants were also accused, according to the charge, of, while “knowing that a treasonable act was intended to be committed, did not give information thereof with all reasonable despatch to either the President… or a peace officer.”
They were also accused of failing to take preventive steps and “did not use any reasonable endeavours to prevent the commission of the offence”.
Beyond treason, the defendants are facing terrorism-related charges of conspiracy under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, as they “conspired with one another to commit an act of terrorism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim and Zekeri Umoru were specifically accused of attending meetings linked to the alleged plot “in a bid to further a political ideology which may seriously destabilise the constitutional structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The charge also accused the defendants of providing support for terrorism, alleging that they “knowingly and indirectly rendered support” to facilitate acts of terror.
The prosecution alleged deliberate suppression of intelligence, stating that the defendants “had information which would be of material assistance in preventing the commission of the act of terrorism but failed to disclose the information to the relevant agency as soon as practicable”.
Financially, several defendants were accused of handling funds linked to terrorism financing, in violation of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Bukar Kashim Goni allegedly “indirectly retained the aggregate sum of N50,000,000, which forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: terrorism financing”, while Abdulkadir Sani allegedly retained N2m from a similar source.
According to the charge, Zekeri Umoru “without going through a financial institution accepted a cash payment of the sum of N10,000,000″ and also retained an additional N8.8m suspected to be proceeds of terrorism financing.
Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim was also accused of taking possession of “the sum of N1,000,000, being part of proceeds of terrorism financing”.
Alleged Coup Plot, Protests
After the Federal Government cancelled the parade to mark Nigeria’s 65th independence anniversary on October 1, 2025, reports had claimed that the move was linked to an alleged coup attempt.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) dismissed the claims, however, saying the parade cancellation had nothing to do with the alleged coup attempt.
In January 2026, the DHQ confirmed that there was an attempt to overthrow President Tinubu.
The DHQ Director of Defence Information, Samaila Uba, said investigations showed some military personnel were involved in the alleged coup plot.
According to Uba, the officers have been detained and would be arraigned before military judicial panels.
Last month, families of the military officers detained over the alleged coup plot appealed to Tinubu to allow the suspects to be tried in an open court.
Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore protested alongside the detained officers’ families. They also asked for access to the alleged coup plotters.
From the seat of the Presidency, came what indicates a clear and open support for the camp in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) fighting David Mark, National Secretary and Rauf Aregbesola, National Secretary, respectively.
The signal came from Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Bola Tinubu, who practically threw his weight behind Leke Abejide, one of the arrowheads wedging the war that could see the main opposition party in Nigeria not presenting a candidate for next year’s presidential election.
Against the backdrop of allegations that Aso Rock has been fuelling the various crises in the major political parties, Gbajabiamila, former Speaker of the House of Representatives and a key ally of President Bola Tinubu, all but clearly stoked the fire by egging the Kogi lawmaker on to launch a fiercer onslaught against the Mark leadership.
Urging Abejide, who had sworn that he would do everything to ensure Tinubu’s re-election not to leave the ADC, through which he won his election to the National Assembly in 2023, but to stay back and fight rather than exiting the party, the ex-Speaker praised him for his resilience so far.
Abejide, who on his own, has thrown his weight behind Nafiu Bala, former Deputy National Chairman of the ADC, now laying claims to Mark’s position was one of those sacked at the convention organised by the Mark group last week.
But Gbajabiamila, who used the Kogi lawmaker’s birthday celebration on Monday to announce his support publicly, while hailing his political trajectory and resilience, including winning his election under the ADC – a relatively less-fancied platform in 2023.
His words: “For a man to contest in a place like Kogi, under a relatively unknown party, and win back-to-back elections, it tells you who that man is. You did not only secure re-election but also helped expand the party’s influence by bringing in other candidates. You’re a committed party man and a fighter.
“My charge to you is to stay in that same party. Fight them. Scatter them. Hold on to your party. Do not abandon them. We like what you are doing. Hold on to your party. Do not abandon it. Continue what you are doing. Win your election there. Nobody can take your party away from you.”
After the hammer from the Mark group, alongside Kingsley Temitope, Obinna Norman, Kennedy Odiong, and Stella Chukwuma, over the allegation of anti-party activities, Abejide dismissed his sack as null and void, coming from a “suya convention.”
Jonathan to Atiku: I don’t play God *I still achieved, though imperfect
BREAKING: FG opts for open court trial of coup plotters against Tinubu
ADC: Fight, scatter them! *Presidency goads Kogi lawmaker on Mark’s leadership
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