The EFCC has an inherent duty to scrutinize all
complaints that it receives carefully, no matter how
carefully crafted by the complaining party, and be bold
enough to counsel such complainant to seek
appropriate/lawful means to resolve their disputes.
Alas! The EFCC is not a debt recovery agency and should
refrain from being used as such --- by overzealous
and/or unscrupulous characters for the recovery of
debts arising from simple contracts, loans, or purely civil
transactions”.
Furthermore, both sections 8 (2) of the administration of
Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and 9 (2) of the administration of
Criminal Justice Law No. 8 of 2019 of Sokoto State,
prohibited the arrest of any suspect merely on a civil wrong or
breach of contract.
It is also trite law that although the rights of personal liberty
and freedom of a citizen of this country can be deprived
temporarily in appropriate circumstances, the ending phrase
of section 35 (1) of the 1999 CFRN {as amended} contained
that the deprivation, if must be done, shall be in accordance
with a procedure permitted by law.
The cumulative effect of section 35 (4) and (5) (a) of the
1999 CFRN {as amended}, is to the effect that any person who
is arrested or detained in accordance with subsection (1) (c)
of the same section 35 of the CFRN, must be taken to Court
within one day of his detention if there is a Court of
competent jurisdiction within a radius of 40 kilometers.
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