Frontline human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has debunked report that he queried why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has not arrested two former Governors of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari and Bello Mattawale.
Ozekhome, SAN, was in an article published in his name by an online media outlet, quoted to have demanded to know why the anti-graft agency was bent on arresting the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
According the article, Ozekhome, SAN, wondered what made the case of the former Kogi State governor different, when he had also secured an interim order of injunction preventing his arrest and prosecution, just like his counterparts in Zamfara State.
“I know you hate Bello but calm down and separate emotions from logic. You cannot disobey a court order simply because you want to enforce the law.
“In February 2024, Yahaya Bello approached a high court in Kogi state and was granted a restraining order, you do not expect him submit himself to EFCC when the restraining order is still valid.
“EFCC has challenged the restraining order granted to Yahaya Bello in an appeal court whose judgment is expected to be delivered on Monday 22nd April 2024 but couldn’t wait hence they decided to lay siege on his residence.
“The likes of Abdulaziz Yari, Peter Odili and current Minister of defence, Bello Mattawale has enjoyed similar court order restraining EFCC from prosecuting them in the past, the question begging for answer is why is Bello’s case different,” the said Article read in part.
However, while distancing himself from the report, Ozekhome, SAN, described it as “a lie from the pit of hell.”
The senior lawyer, in a statement he made available to newsmen in Abuja, said: “My attention has just been drawn to the above disturbing and shocking piece of trash allegedly authored by me.
“I did not, never did, nor will I ever contemplate spewing out such odious inanity and banal statement devoid of common Sense and reasoning.
“The above write-up ascribed to me is a lie from the pit of hell. How can I, Matawalle’s friend and lawyer of many years, utter such nonsense?
“How could I be linked with a statement suggesting meddling into a matter that is subjudice; or media trial, ad homine application of laws; or conviction before trial, when the whole world knows me for preaching and writing human rights, due process democracy and good governance for over four decades?
“I hereby wholly denounce the write-up. I also hereby humbly urge members of the public to ignore the statement and its banner headline, all of which are utterly false, baseless, unfounded and which are simply idiotic.
“They constitue nothing but hallucinations from the fertile imagination of the writer.
“Such statements are spewed by faceless idle internet crawlers that nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, once historically described as ‘millipedes of the internet’.
“It is apposite to note here that the issue of me being the author can not even arise because the faceless author still quoted an alleged earlier statement purportedly made by me of I defeating the EFCC 11 times.
“I couldn’t have been authoring a statement, yet quoting myself, saying, ‘No wonder the renowned senior advocate, Mike Ozekhome described the anti graft agency with the following statement. EFCC is a paper tiger, I have taken them to court eleven times and defeated them – Mike Ozekhome SAN’.
“Please, ignore the statement and consign it to the trashcan of history where it rightly belongs,” the statement read.