{"id":59879,"date":"2025-01-24T14:08:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T14:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=59879"},"modified":"2025-01-24T14:08:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T14:08:55","slug":"efcc-halts-arrest-of-mercy-chinwos-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/01\/24\/efcc-halts-arrest-of-mercy-chinwos-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"EFCC Halts Arrest of Mercy Chinwo\u2019s Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has suspended the arrest of Ezekiel Onyedikachi, manager of gospel artist Mercy Chinwo, amid allegations of $345,000 fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Onyedikachi, accused of misappropriating funds from Chinwo\u2019s royalties and event earnings, was charged on Friday through his lawyer, Monday Ubani (SAN).<\/p>\n<p>The EFCC had previously obtained an arrest warrant from the Federal High Court in Lagos, alleging Onyedikachi diverted royalties meant for Chinwo.<\/p>\n<p>However, Ubani argued that the EFCC misrepresented the case, framing a contractual dispute as a criminal matter.<\/p>\n<p>He disclosed that Onyedikachi had filed a fundamental human rights suit to challenge the arrest and also raised preliminary objections to the fraud charges.<\/p>\n<p>EFCC counsel Bilikisu Buhari informed Justice Alexander Owoeye that, despite the arrest order, it remained unexecuted.<\/p>\n<p>She requested to serve the charges directly to Onyedikachi\u2019s lawyer, which Ubani accepted, rendering the warrant unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Owoeye scheduled February 14 for Onyedikachi\u2019s arraignment and the hearing of pending applications.<\/p>\n<p>The case underscores the complexities of financial accountability and management in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has suspended the arrest of Ezekiel Onyedikachi, manager of gospel artist Mercy Chinwo, amid allegations of $345,000 fraud. Onyedikachi, accused of misappropriating funds from Chinwo\u2019s royalties and event earnings, was charged on Friday through his lawyer, Monday Ubani (SAN). The EFCC had previously obtained an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":59880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59881,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59879\/revisions\/59881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}