Fadekemi Branch, wife of popular Nollywood actor, Femi Branch, has narrated her ordeal in the hands of operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) while in their detention.
Mrs. Branch was arrested on the 21st of December 2019, by the anti graft agency for duping one UK -based lady, Itohan Emwionkpa .
She described the allegation as ‘untrue’ claiming that she never had dealings with the said Emwionkpa.
Following the allegation, she was arrested by the anti-graft agency, where she spent five days in their net, and released after paying the sum of N3,056,000 to the EFCC authorities.
This was as her late mother, Mrs. Julianah Modupeola Akanbi was also detained to enable her show up at the EFCC office in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Aggrieved by her unlawful detention, embattled Mrs. Branch sued the anti-graft agency through her lawyer, Mr. Solomon Edoh Esq. for among other things, breach of her constitutional right to presumption of innocence guaranteed and protected by Section 36(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), wrongful collection and withholding of her bank draft for the sum of N3, 056, 000 (Three Million and Fifty Six Thousand Naira) without any just cause or excuse and illegal detention.
She obtained a judgment in her favour as delivered by Hon. Justice Akintayo Aluko on 22nd July, 2022 in Suit No. FHC/L/CA/163/2022: Mrs Fadekemi Branch v Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
According to the judgment, the EFCC was mandated to pay the Plaintiff the sum of N3, 056, 000 (Three Million and Fifty Six Thousand Naira) being the value of the bank draft illegally collected from the Plaintiff, interest on the aforesaid sum, damages in the sum of N2, 000, 000 (Two Million Naira) and cost of the action in the sum of N1, 500, 000 (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira).
After the judgment was delivered on 22nd July, 2022, the counsel to the Plaintiff, Mr. Solomon Edoh Esq., served a certified true copy of the judgment on the EFCC and its Chairman and demanded compliance through two letters but his letters were neither responded to nor honoured.
Meanwhile, in the application currently pending before Hon. Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, Mrs. Branch is seeking the committal of the former EFCC Chairman, Bawa for failing to honour and comply with the judgment of the court.
Narrating her ordeal to NollyNow, Mrs Branch said while she was in the EFCC net, her husband was upset, helpless and traumatized.”
“I was detained for five days for a case I knew nothing about. I wasn’t released until the sum of N3,056,000 was obtained from me by the EFCC authorities in 2019,” she narrated.
