Former
President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN),
has filed an application praying a Lagos High Court, Ikeja to quash some
charges of fuel subsidy fraud instituted against Mr. Seun Ogunbambo.
Agbakoba has just joined the defence
team of the accused person, who faces multiple charges of fuel subsidy
and bank fraud before two separate judges of the Lagos High Court.
The former NBA boss, through the
application premised on a novel ground referred to as ‘Miranda rights’,
is seeking the court to quash all the 10 counts of N976m fuel subsidy
fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, is prosecuting Ogunbambo, Habila Theck, and their company,
Fargo Petroleum and Gas Limited, for allegedly making fraudulent claim
of N976, 653,110.28 from the Federal Government under the subsidy
scheme.
However, Agbokoba, in his application
filled before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, seeking to quash the charges,
argued that the EFCC had violated his client’s right to Miranda rights.
According to him, by Miranda rights, a
person arrested or detained, is entitled to have legal representation
immediately on arrest and before making any statement.
Miranda rights, Agbakoba argued, were to
prevent coercive and involuntary extraction of statements by law
enforcement agencies from suspects.
These rights, according to the former
NBA boss, are as contained in Sections 35(2) of the Constitution and
Section 3(2 and 3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of
Lagos State.
Jude Ehiedu stated in an affidavit filed
in support of the application, “After the applicants were arrested by
the operatives of the respondent, the applicants were interrogated and
made to write statements without being informed of their rights to
silence and counsel.
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