A Lagos based Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has begun campaing for the release of the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, who has, by today, August 20, spent 67 days in the detention of the Department of State Services (DSS) without any charges and trial.
He said, in a statement today, August 20, that the remand order of Bawa has since expired.
According to him, Bawa’s detention is against the provisions of Section 493 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 or section 35 of the Constitution of Nigeria to authorise the detention of a criminal suspect for 67 days without trial.
Under the Act, the cumulative lifespan of a remand order is 56 days.
He said: “Sometime last month, I had cause to demand the immediate release of Mr Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, from the custody of the State Security Service.
“In the alternative, I requested the Federal Government to charge the two detained suspects before a court of competent jurisdiction, if there was evidence that they had committed criminal offences.”
