Court Stops Security Agencies From Arresting Pastor Adeboye’s Son over 7.6B Naira contract dispute
Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court in Lagos has issued a restraining order preventing all Nigerian security agencies from inviting, interrogating, or arresting Adeolu Adeboye, son of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, and others involved in an ongoing N8.7 billion contract dispute.
action against Pastor Adeboye’s son, Adeolu and the other directors of the firm.
The court also directed all financial institutions in Nigeria to grant Adeolu and his fellow directors unfettered access to their bank accounts, which had reportedly been restricted in connection with the dispute.
The other directors named in the suit include Tafida Yusuf, Adebosin Temitope, Josephine Uruevo, Leon Kelly, Adeboye Adeolu, Okafor Akalaka, Waziri Habibah Adamu, Captain Niyi Ogunowo, Ukuevo Jackson, and Adeboye Adebimpe.
The Kaduna State Government and the Kaduna State House of Assembly were also joined as respondents in the suit, which stems from a contract awarded to Ronchess Global Resources and currently the subject of a civil case before the Kaduna State High Court (Suit No: KDH/KAD/594/2024).
In his judgment, Justice Owoeye declared that the invitation issued to the directors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), via a letter dated June 27, 2024, at the alleged instigation of the Kaduna State Government and House of Assembly, violated the applicants’ fundamental rights as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
According to the court, “The invitation of the applicants by the respondents in respect of the contracts awarded to Ronchess Global Resources Plc, amounts to a flagrant violation of the applicants’ fundamental rights under sections 34, 35, 36 and 41 of the Constitution, and is therefore illegal, unconstitutional, null, and void.”
The judge further held that oral invitations extended by the police and security agencies, also at the behest of the Kaduna authorities, were similarly illegal and amounted to harassment, given that the matter is already the subject of active litigation in a civil court.
Tribune,
