An Abuja based businessman, Alhaji Abdulhamid Mahmud Zari has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), seeking the investigation and prosecution of Abubakar Madaki, a Personal Assistant to the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu over alleged acts of extortion and abuse of office.Madaki, a retired Superintendent of Police, is currently the head of Economic Governance of EFCC.
Zari’s demand was contained in separate petitions written on his behalf by Chief Mike Ozekome SAN, chambers, and made available to judiciary correspondents on Monday.
In the petition dated June 1, 2018, the petitioner, Alhaji Zari, wants the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to compel the arraignment of Madaki, before the Nassarawa State High Court.
The petition reads in part: “It is our client’s instructions that on the 26th of March, 2017, the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, visited his house in Guruduma Town and further threatened our client, telling him that he will use his powers to deal with him.
“Our client informed us that he was therefore not surprised when EFCC operatives, from Procurement Fraud Section led by one Hamza Abdulahi, 2ic in the said Procurement Fraud Section, then headed by the same Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, invaded our client’s home and business premises without a search warrant or court order.
“It is our client’s instruction that the said operatives of EFCC, carted away his personal properties including his international passport, landed property documents and countless other belongings of our client and is still holding on to same till date.
“It is our client’s further instructions that the operatives from the procurement fraud section of EFCC, then headed by the same Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, informed him that the raid on his home and business premises was prompted by a whistleblower as no petition or report was shown to him.
“That despite not finding anything incriminating in the course of their illegal search of our client’s premises, they arrested our client and took him to the EFCC headquarters.
Ozekhome stated that his client was purportedly released on bail after the said EFCC operatives forcefully extorted the sum of Four Million Naira(N4,000,000.00) from him, promising to release all the documents carted away by them in the course of the illegal search on his premises.
“It is further our client’s instructions that it was when the operatives of EFCC failed to release his properties to him that he consulted the law firm of Mike Ozekhome’s Chambers.
“It is further our client’s instruction that he instructed Mike Ozekhome’s Chambers to petition the Inspector General of Police in respect of the conduct of the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki.
“It is further our client’s instructions that the Inspector General of Police, promptly directed the Commissioner of Police Nasarawa state, to investigate the said petition and act accordingly.
“It is further our client’s instructions that the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, using the instrumentality of the EFCC wrote the Commissioner of Police Nasarawa State, in a desperate bid to shield himself, from investigation in respect of the petition written against him and truncate the course of justice.
It is also the case of the petitioner that “the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, rather than follow up on the investigation in respect of the petition against him, in his further desperate bid to thwart the course of justice, wrote a fresh petition through the Chambers of M.A Mahmud SAN & Co, dated 28th June, 2017.
“It is our client’s further instructions that the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki using the office of the IGP, through the IGP Monitoring Unit, demanded for the transfer of the petitions written by our client, for which the IGP had already approved and directed that investigation be conducted, and necessary actions taken by the Commissioner of Police Nasarawa State.
“Our client informed us that the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki in furtherance of the said sinister plan of shielding himself from investigation and possible prosecution, succeeded in using the office of the IGP Monitoring Unit, to cause the transfer of the case for which the Police in Nasarawa state had already concluded investigations and was about to charge the matter to court.
“It is further our client’s instructions that he was shocked beyond words that IGP monitoring Unit, rather than investigating the petition written against our client, called for the transfer of a case file, in respect of a petition written by our client for which investigation was completed. Our client further informed us that the IGP monitoring Unit, on its own, subsequently transferred the case file back to Nasarawa Police Command, directing that the case be prosecuted.
The petitioner alleged that, giving the historic background of their faceoff, Abubakar Madaki had always solicited and sort for financial favours from him.
“Our Client further informed us that, the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki approached him to buy 10 hectares of land at the price of Twenty Million Naira (N20,000,000.00).
“That the said Abubakar Aliyu Madaki, insisted that our client must pay the said Twenty Million Naira, stating that our client has the financial capacity to pay, given the volume of his investments in the community.
“Our client offered to pay the sum of Ten Million Naira, only (N10,000,000.00) in respect of the said parcel of Land.
“Our client decided eventually not to buy the said land which decision irked Abubakar Aliyu Madaki who was desperately in need of money at that time.
The petitioner is the Managing Director of G – Complex Nig. Ltd, a company that he has been using to develop Gunduma village, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, which incidentally is also the hometown of Abubakar Aliyu Madaki.
Apart from alleging that Madaki is attempting to perverse and truncate the course of justice, the petitioner narrated how he (Madaki) instigated the EFCC against him, by going after all his business partners for no just course.
Zari added that, “letters of invitations were sent to all my business partners directing them to come and disclose every transaction they ever made with me financially and otherwise”. END.
