Court orders arrest of sacked panel investigator

The federal high court, Abuja, has issued a warrant for the arrest of Victor Uwajeh, a UK-based private investigator.

In March, Uwajeh was appointed a special investigator in the presidential panel for the recovery of public property but was disengaged on April 23.

He was fired for failing to disclose a criminal charge pending against him before the court.

The federal government had filed a four-count criminal charge bordering on forgery, impersonation, fraud and illegally procuring forged documents against Uwajeh.

Before he was disengaged, the panel had wanted him to track and recover stolen funds stacked in the UK by past and present public officials.

At the court on Monday, John Tsoho, the judge handling the criminal case against Uwajeh, issued the warrant after he failed to appear in court.

Tsoho said the refusal of Uwajeh to appear is an affront on the authority of the court.

The judge also referred Edward Omarga and Amushi Nnamani-Nwankwo, counsels to the investigator, to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) for sanction over their conduct in the matter.

Uwajeh is said to have evaded several attempts to be served by the court bailiff.