CSO Demands Review of Civil Case Allegedly Criminalized by Attorney General of the Federation

The Africa Center for Good Governance and Corruption Free Communities, a civic group, is worried that the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation has turned a civil case against human rights lawyer Barrister Victor Giwa and two other people into a criminal case.

The civic group brought up the issue and asked Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, the Director of Public Prosecution in the Ministry of Justice, to look into the case.

The CSO’s convener, Temitope Olubunmi Joseph, said that the case started out as a civil matter but was made a criminal matter by the former AGF, Abubakar Malami, SAN.

The civic group was worried that the charge could be a witch hunt and called for a full investigation to find out the truth.

“This is supposed to be a civil matter. The question we should ask is, when did it become a criminal matter?” We know that the Honorable AGF Fagbemi and the DPP, Oyedepo, haven’t thought about the issue in a serious way yet.

“We are using this medium to ask them to look into this matter again and ask for a new investigation.

“The last administration in the ministry, led by Malami, used his office to scare and harass Giwa and his client, Cecil Osakwe, over a property owned by Osakwe at No. 1, Me Long Close, Maitama, Abuja.”

The civil society group said, “We ask the AGF to look into the matter again and order a new investigation so that an innocent person does not have to pay for it.”

According to reports, Justice Samira Bature of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court had issued an arrest warrant for Giwa and a police officer named Edith Erhunmuuse. The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation charged them with nine counts under the case number FCT/HC/CR/222/2023. They were to be arraigned with another defendant, Cecil Osakwe.

The charge said that the defendants had done something illegal by allegedly evicting people by force and damaging property worth N300 million.

The civil society group, on the other hand, pointed out that a court ordered the eviction that the defendants were charged with.

The civic group said, “The eviction could not have happened without the order of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory,” and they criticized the criminal prosecution.