A Nigerian based abroad, Oluwatosin Osasona Adekunle, has approached the Federal High Court in Lagos to challenge a notice by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declaring him wanted.
Adekunle, in an affidavit deposed to by his lawyers from the law firm of Akinola JP and dated August 24, said the EFCC had declared him wanted and posted the notice on its social media handles without a court directive to that effect.
He, therefore, asked the court to declare the EFCC’s action illegal and a violation of his fundamental rights.
The declaration sought before the court stated: ‘The declaration and publication of the applicant (Oluwatosin Osasona Adekunle) as a wanted person on August 19, 2026 on the website of the Respondent (EFCC) without any prior order or leave of a court of competent jurisdiction to that effect is unlawful, illegal, wrongful, ultra vires, unconstitutional and constitutes a flagrant violation of the fundamental rights of the applicant.’
Adekunle urged the court to direct the EFCC ‘to remove from its website and social media platforms the purported declaration made against the applicant forthwith, having violated the fundamental rights of the applicant to personal liberty, private and family life, freedom of movement and the right not to be subjected to inhuman treatment and degrading treatment as guaranteed’ under the constitution.
He also asked for an order restraining the anti-graft agency from further infringing on his fundamental rights and from publishing his name as a wanted person on its official website and social media handles.
He further sought an order mandating the agency to issue a public apology.
Adekunle is also asking for N5 million in general damages against the EFCC.
Adekunle explained that the EFCC declared him wanted in lieu of his partner, Mrs Victoria Chidinma Nwachukwu, whom he said had a case before the commission relating to money laundering and obtaining by false pretence.
Trouble began, he said, when Nwachukwu set up a private company limited by shares, Oasis Vivacity Global Limited, using his home address as its office address, and made him a director and company account signatory without his prior notice.
According to Adekunle, when Nwachukwu owed a customer some money, the EFCC could not find her and resorted to ‘intimidating and harassing’ him ‘with the intention to arrest and detain’ him in lieu of Nwachukwu.
He added that ‘there is neither complaint nor any prima facie evidence directly linking’ him ‘to any crime of money laundering or obtaining under false pretence other than being an agent’.
His lawyers claimed that ‘the Applicant and his entire immediate family are now apprehensive as the Respondents (EFCC) have threatened to arrest either the Applicant or any member of his immediate family, if they cannot get the Applicant’.
Adekunle further raised the question of whether the EFCC ‘can unilaterally declare the Applicant wanted without a valid court order. The probable answer is No’.
He further stated that ‘the right to declare a person ‘wanted’ is not an administrative label that a law enforcement agency may deploy at will; it is a legal status that presupposes prior judicial authorisation.
‘Where no warrant of arrest has been issued, and no escape from lawful custody has occurred, a unilateral declaration that a citizen is ‘wanted’ lacks juridical foundation and amounts to executive overreach and also breaches the fundamental rights of the Applicant as enshrined in the Constitution.’
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit.