Femi Falana, a human rights attorney, has called for the release of Abdulrasheed Bawa, the former EFCC chairman who is now in custody.
According to Platinum Times, Bawa is now being kept in the Department of State Services’ (DSS) custody in Abuja.
Bawa, who has been in the DSS’s custody for 67 days as of June 14, 2023, is under investigation for potential financial misconduct.
Falana, arguing that the DSS lacks legal justification for continuing to hold Bawa in custody, claimed in a statement released on Sunday in Lagos that the remand order for Bawa had expired.
The statement partly reads:
“In view of the fact that Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa has not been charged with any criminal offence whatsoever, the State Security Service ought to have released him from custody. I am not unaware of the claim that Mr. Bawa is being detained on the basis of a remand order issued by a Magistrate Court in the Federal Capital Territory.
“It ought to be pointed out that the remand order has become spent, invalid, and illegal as no magistrate has the power under 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.”