Because he hid two suspects in his Mercezedez Benz Sports Utility from the EFCC operatives investigating the Beninose, Ricky Tarfa, SAN and owner of Rick Tarfa and Co., has been kicking his heels for five days in the EFCC detention. He will soon be charged with obstruction of justice and attempt to pervert justice.
To pile up Tarfa’s agony, the commission will also arraign him for illegally and unethically phoning a judge in a suit involving the EFCC and some companies.
ALSO SEE: EFCC arrest of Tarfa: Dawodu, Akeredolu, others react
The suspects, Nazaire Sorou Gnanhoue and Modeste Finagnon, were said to have converted some manufacturing equipment belonging to Rana Prestige Nigeria Limited. They were also tax dodgers.
In what seemed an effort to steer attention away from the core allegations against Tarfa, Segun Odubela, head of chambers of their law firm, said in a statement the matter was about a matrimonial issue that went sour.
The Nigeria Bar Association, too, particularly some of their ex-presidents, had earlier condemned the EFCC action as overzealous.
Others ticked it off as a witch-hunt.
According to Joseph Bodunrin Daudu, SAN and head of defence team of ex-NSA Sambo Dasuki, those lawyers defending accused persons are now endangered species.
ALSO SEE: Dasukigate: Ikimi, sick, faces EFCC fire
“All of us are being investigated by the EFCC, so we are all waiting for the day they will come and carry us,” the NBA ex-president said.
It appears a face-off between the judiciary and executive arms of government is brewing.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been whining on how the Third Realm of the Estate has been a pain in the neck to him in the fight against corruption.
And Prof. Itse Sagay, the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, recently told a daily there are certain SANs who also got slices of the $2.1 billion arms purchase scandal that has been unfolding.