The Supreme Court of Nigeria has ruled in favor of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), allowing it to investigate the tenure of former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili.
This decision comes after the apex court dismissed appeals filed by the Rivers State Attorney General and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice John Okoro, delivered the ruling on Monday, March 10, 2025.
The judgment upholds an earlier decision by the Court of Appeal, which granted the EFCC permission to challenge a 2007 injunction that had stopped it from investigating Odili’s administration.
Peter Odili, who governed Rivers State from 1999 to 2007, obtained the injunction from the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt in 2007.
The ruling prevented the EFCC from arresting, prosecuting, or investigating him, including looking into the state’s finances during his tenure. Since 2008, the EFCC has been trying to overturn this restriction but was unsuccessful for almost two decades.
In 2018, the Court of Appeal allowed the EFCC to challenge the injunction, but the Rivers State Attorney General and the Speaker of the House of Assembly tried to stop this by appealing to the Supreme Court.
“The litigants’ lawyer, S. A. Somiari, SAN, argued that the appeal challenged the leave granted by the Court of Appeal for the EFCC to appeal the 2007 injunction. Justice Okoro, however, interjected, stating,
‘This is not the type of appeal we hear here,’ and advised the parties to return to the Court of Appeal to have the substantive appeal heard before approaching the Supreme Court.”
However, during the hearing on Monday, Justice Okoro pointed out that the appeals were not the kind of cases the Supreme Court should be handling at this stage. The lawyers representing the Rivers State officials then withdrew the appeal, and the Supreme Court dismissed the case.
With this ruling, the EFCC is now free to investigate Odili’s tenure as governor, including financial activities during his administration.
