Tompolo asks Appeal Court to void arrest warrant

A former Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, has urged the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal to void the warrant for arrest issued against him on January 14 and February 8 by Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Justice Buba issued the warrant for Tompolo’s arrest for his failure to honour summons issued on him in respect of 40 counts of alleged N45.9bn fraud levelled against him and nine others.

The judge had in a ruling on February 8 dismissed an application by Tompolo’s lawyers, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) and Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, seeking to vacate the arrest warrant on the claim that Tompolo was not properly served with the summons.

Following Tompolo’s continued absence in court, Justice Buba, on Friday last week ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to seize some assets belonging to Tompolo pending when he would appear in court to answer the charges.

In a statement on Sunday, Adegboruwa, however, said his law firm and that of Oyetibo had since Thursday filed an appeal against the arrest warrant issued on Tompolo by Justice Buba.

In their 10 grounds of appeal, Oyetibo and Adegbroruwa contended that Justice Buba erred in law when he “refused to set aside the warrant of arrest issued against him (Tompolo), when there was no evidence to show that he had been notified of the summons and the criminal charge pending against him, before the Court.”

The lawyers also argued that Justice Buba ought to have ascertained that the EFCC duly complied with the order of the court for substituted service, by posting the charge at the correct address as contained in the order of the court.

They also urged the appellate court to declare that the application leading to the issuance of the warrant for Tompolo’s arrest was not competently placed before the court, because the counsel that signed and filed it on behalf of the EFCC failed to affix his seal thereto, as required by law.

SOURCE: Ramon Oladimeji