60-Year-Old Man Arrested by EFCC Spends 13 Years in Prison Without Trial, Secures Freedom at 73

• Pa Nyeche, a 73-year-old man arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at age 60, has finally been freed.
• It was gathered that Pa Nyeche’s freedom was secured after the Headfort Foundation, a non-governmental agency, took up his case.
• The agency revealed that Pa Nyeche’s file was declared missing and was never arraigned in court, causing him to remain in custody for 13 years and eight months.

TheTalk.NG journalist Segun Adeyemi has over 9 years of experience covering political events, civil society, courts, and metro

After spending 13 years and eight months in custody since his initial arrest, Nyeche, a 73-year-old man, has finally been freed from the grasp of the EFCC.

It was gathered that Nyeche was arrested when he was 60 years old and was detained without trial for over a decade.

The Headfort Foundation helped secure the release of the 73-year-old man after 13 years in EFCC custody without trial. Photo Credit: EFCC/Headfort FoundationSource: Twitter

According to the Headfort Foundation (Prison Reform Initiative), the organisation that advocated for Nyeche’s release, the file of the 73-year-old went missing while he was in custody.

How Nyeche was freed

The Foundation said Nyeche’s case was referred to them by a church that “went for prison outreach in March 2022.”

In a post made via X, the foundation wrote:

“Nyeche, a 73-year-old man, was arrested by EFCC at the age of 60; he spent 13 years and 8 months in prison awaiting trial.

“We took on his case after being referred by a church that went for prison outreach in March 2022. His case file went missing, and he was not before any court between 2019 and 2023. We traced his file to the DPP office and brought him before a court on 20th October 2023 when he was re-arraigned for the crime of stealing.

“We argued that Nyeche should be released because he has already served more than the provided sentence for the crime of stealing if found guilty.”

According to the Foundation, the EFCC requested an adjournment to prepare for trial, and the court granted the same.

The Foundation said:

“Then, our lawyer applied for his bail and undertook to ensure his presence in court on the next adjourned date. The court granted our application on the ground that we ensure his presence on the next date.”

It was gathered that on the 20th of October, 2023, Pa. Nyeche experienced freedom after 13 years and eight months in prison.

Jubilation as embattled ex-CBN boss Emefiele returns home after 151 days in DSS, EFCC custody

In another report, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has been released from the custody of the EFCC.

Emefiele, who has been in the authorities’s custody for over 150 days, secured bail from the high court in Abuja.

Justice Olukayode Adeniyi ordered his release despite objections from the federal government.

Source: TheTalk.NG

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