Nigeria: Court Restrains EFCC From Arresting Honda Executives, Associates, Dealers

What the report says

A Lagos State High Court has barred Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from arresting or detaining Honda Manufacturing (Nigeria) Limited, Honda Automobile Western Africa Limited and more than 200 related applicants while a probe is ongoing. The applicants, according to Vanguard’s report distributed by AllAfrica, include company officers, dealers, distributors, business associates and other individuals and businesses linked to the Honda firms.

Justice Olukayode Ogunjobi granted the first request in the motion for interim injunction after it was presented by the applicants’ lawyer, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The group had asked the court to stop the EFCC and its officers from summoning them for questioning, issuing additional invitations, or taking steps they said could amount to harassment, intimidation or threats of arrest. They also sought protection against any restriction on their liberty unless due process under the constitution and other laws was followed.

The court allowed the initial prayer and held that it covered the other reliefs sought in the suit, according to the report. The case was filed under provisions of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The matter was adjourned to November 23, 2026, for further proceedings. As a general matter, Nigerian courts can issue interim orders to preserve rights while a dispute is being heard, but the specific facts of the EFCC investigation were not detailed in the supplied report.