New Telegraph Admin 
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has said it will appeal the court verdict ordering the immediate release of Dibu Ojerinde, ex-registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Early this week, a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered ICPC to release Ojerinde and pay him N1 million damages for unlawful detention.
Obiora Egwuatu, presiding judge, also awarded N200,000 fine against the ICPC as the cost of instituting the suit against the former JAMB registrar. In March 2021, Ojerinde was arrested by the ICPC. Four months later, he was arraigned on an 18-count charge bordering on alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of N5.2 billion while in office.
He was later granted bail while the trial continued. In January 2023, Ojer- inde was re-arrested by the ICPC at the court premises. Subsequently, the former JAMB registrar sued ICPC for allegedly violating his right to dignity and liberty.
Delivering judgment on Tuesday, Egwuatu held that though Ojerinde’s re- arrest was legal and lawful based on the search warrant obtained from the chief judge of the court, the anti-graft commission ought to have obtained a detention warrant.
The judge held that detaining the applicant without a proper order and not arraigning him was a breach of his fundamental right to liberty. In a statement issued yesterday, Azuka Ogugua, ICPC spokesperson, said the Commission “intends to appeal the ruling of the court.
“The anti-corruption agency had a valid warrant issued by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court dated 6th December, 2022. “Ojerinde had used several false names, aliases and forged means of identification such as Akanbi Lamidi, Adeniyi Banji, Habibulahi Lamidi, Joshua Olaniran Olakuleyin, etc., to perpetrate his corrupt practices through various banks.”
