Chief Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo) has filed his appeal before the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, challenging the order of the Federal High Court, Lagos, for his arrest.
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the lower court had, on January 14, 2016, issued a warrant for Tompolo’s arrest. On January 27, 2016, Tompolo filed an application before the court, to set aside the said warrant of arrest.
On February 8, 2016, the said application was argued and dismissed by the court. Tompolo, thereafter, appealed against the ruling of the lower court, on February 18, 2016.
Determined to pursue the appeal, Tompolo has since compiled the record of appeal in the appeal and has forwarded same to the Registry of the Court of Appeal, Lagos.
It was gathered from his counsel that the 170-page record of appeal was received by the Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Nassara Williams, on March 3, 2016, with Appeal No. CA/L/240/2016.
The prosecutor, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has also been duly served with the said record of appeal. Tompolo also filed his appellant’s brief of argument, through the law firms of Tayo Oyetibo, SAN and Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, on March 11, 2016, thus invoking the judicial process for the prompt and effective determination of the said appeal.
Tompolo, in the appeal, is complaining that the trial court erred in law, in refusing to set aside the warrant of arrest issued against him, when there was no evidence to show that he had been notified of the summons and the charge pending against him, before the court.
Tompolo also complained that the trial court ought to have ascertained that the respondent, that is the EFCC, duly complied with the order of the court for substituted service, by posting the charge at the correct address as contained in the order of the court.
Tompolo stated further that the application leading to the issuance of the warrant of arrest was not competently placed before the court, as the counsel that signed and filed it on behalf of the EFCC failed to affix his seal thereto, as required by law.
Tompolo is thus asking the Court of Appeal to set aside the warrant for his arrest and vacate all subsequent proceedings emanating from the flawed process of the criminal charge. He is further seeking that the charge against him should be transferred from the current judge, to another judge of the Federal High Court.
