How EFCC and the government may have wrongly enriched Festus Keyamo
4 min read
Festus Keyamo
Whenever I read Fetus Keyamo speak about his “successful private law practice”, I feel so sad for the country of Nigeria. Festus Keyamo has nothing he could call a “successful law practice”. It is largely an illegal and unethical enterprise that has depended on intimidation, fraud and extortion to stay in operation. In fact, it is impossible not to conclude that Keyamo is a fraudster. I would have just described him as a crude Warri boy, but I do not want to offend the good people of Warri.
Keyamo’s law practice made much of whatever money it made by abusing his position as an EFCC private prosecutor. He used his closeness to EFCC to shake people down. Individuals who are facing EFCC investigations hire Keyamo because they believe he would use his closeness to EFCC to their advantage. In fact, he actively marketed himself with that line – “You know I am EFCC prosecutor. I can speak to so and so and the case will be dropped”, etc. EFCC which continued to hire Keyamo never bothered to ensure that he was not abusing his position as their prosecutor. EFCC ought to have ensured that any private lawyer it uses to prosecute its suspects would not be engaging in private cases involving EFCC or leveraging on EFCC access. Keyamo was using EFCC access as a fishing net to garner clients. EFCC, an elite financial crimes law enforcement agency should have known better. What else is Keyamo doing with the name of EFCC and the Government of Nigeria? We already know that he dropped the names of the President and the Attorney-General when dealing with Mohammed Khan.
It is a shame that the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nigerian law legal professional community allowed that. So, at best, what Keyamo was doing was a racketeering operation aided and indirectly endorsed by the EFCC. It is a pity for a man who claims to be a human right activist to morph into a dangerous abuser of rights. So, there is nothing successful about Keyamo’s law practice. It has always been a fraudulent scheme.
Keyamo tried to use his closeness to EFCC to help Senator Festus Ola to collect the 50 million naira judgment the Senator won against the EFCC in exchange for one-third of the amount. What work would Keyamo have done to warrant thirteen million? He would simply have made phone calls to some officers on EFCC and they would pay Ola. Then he would have paid some money back to those officers to keep the relationship going. And shockingly, when Senator Ola refused to accede to Keyamo’s 13 million fee, the EFCC arrested Senator Ola the next day. What a country! What a shame!
Apart from the glaring case of Mohammed Khan, the Pakistani drug dealer (now serving a long jail term in the US) where Keyamo obtained money from a suspect in order to manipulate the system for him, Keyamo has been leveraging on his access to Government to force suspects and people with cases to hire him. You can hear him admit that he still has active “manned law firm” while serving as a Minister of the Government. What does that tell you, given his past? Keyamo must likely be using his position as Minister to lure clients who have issues with the Government. For instance, if the police arrest your relative and you need to hire a lawyer, you will be forced to hire Keyamo’s firm because as a Minister, Keyamo could call the Inspector General of Police to demand the release of your relative. (A Minister of the Government can always reach the IGP directly, if he wants to). Keyamo’s position in Government then becomes a means of getting clients and for personal wealth. (Soon, if it hasn’t already happened, NDDC, headed by Lauretta Onochie, will hire Keyamo’s law firm). You don’t need to be a lawyer to know that what Keyamo is doing is illegal. Otherwise, why is Fashola and Osinbajo not also running their law firms while serving as Ministers? The problem in Nigeria is that we see evil and we keep quiet. Otherwise, why couldn’t other SANs in the Cabinet of President Buhari tell Keyamo that what he is doing is wrong?
I know a case where a business man in Benin Republic hired Keyamo to represent him in a breach of contract case involving an American-based person. Keyamo wrote a letter to that person in America demanding payment to his client. The lawyers of the American told Keyamo that the matter was an American case, governed by American law. It happened that the American person had an unrelated issue with the EFCC. Interestingly, EFCC chose Keyamo to prosecute the American person on the EFCC matter. Do you know what Keyamo did? He advised the EFCC that Nigeria could have criminal jurisdiction over an American-based event. He then collected his fees from EFCC. He also called his private client in Benin Republic and told him that he had succeeded in getting the American-based businessman arrested in Nigeria by the EFCC and that the Benin man should pay Keyamo for the arrest. The Benin businessman paid Keyamo and the EFCC paid Keyamo for the arrest of the person with a dispute with Keyamo’s private client. Keyamo knows this is true. His Benin client was Mr. Ernest Adjovi. I have the evidence to show this. I am just waiting for Keyamo to deny any of these allegations.
So, let Festus Keyamo not speak of a successful law practice. He has been running a rogue operation leveraging government contact for money. When a full investigation is done on Keyamo either in Nigeria or in the United States, let those government officials aiding him in his racketeering operations know that they are exposed. It is not so hard to show how they are partly responsible for his misdeeds.
