Rickey Tarfa

Lagos lawyer, Rickey Tarfa(SAN) has sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for his alleged illegal arrest and detention.

He is asking for a N2.5 billion damages.

Tarfa, accompanied by 32 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by the former President, Nigerian Bar Association(NBA), Chief Wole Olanipekun, approached the Federal High Court, Lagos asking the court to compel the anti-graft agency and its Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Mustapha Magu to pay him N2.5billion’

Apart from the monetary compensation, Tarfa also asked the court to compel the defendants which included Moses Awolusi, the operatives that illegally arrested him and the Deputy Director Operations, EFCC, Lagos office, Iliyasu Kwarbai, to release his two mobile handsets to the court.

He said they “deceitfully collected”  the phones from him on Friday, February, 5 2016 at their Ikoyi office in Lagos  for the purpose of destroying  all information, data and other retrievable materials stored in the two handsets.

He also sought an order urging the court to direct the defendants to release his Mercedes Benz SUV with registration No. KJA 700CG unlawfully seized from him.

Besides, he asked for an order of perpetual injunction restraining all the defendants and their agents from further violating his rights apart from the payment of N20 million for the cost of this suit.

The 52 paragraph affidavits in support of the suit was sworn to by the Head of Rickey Tarfa Chambers, John Olusegun Odubela who narrated the genesis of Tarfa’s ordeal as a witness to the gestapo tactics employed by the anti-graft agency.

No date has been fixed for the hearing.

*Reported by Newmail-ng.com