Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has noted that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has no lawful business to investigate State finances while condemning the ‘unwarranted media trial of the Kogi State Government’.
Gatekeepers News reports that Agbakoba was reacting to the previous N20bn bail-out controversy in Kogi State and the fresh case against Aliyu Bello, who is said to be the nephew of the State Governor, Yahaya Bello.
Aliyu, alongside one Dauda Sulaiman, were on Thursday arraigned before an Abuja Federal High Court, over alleged N10bn money laundering and fraud by the EFCC.
Agbakoba, who stressed that how a State spends its money should not be the business of the anti-graft agency, made his position known at a press conference tagged “The Rule of Law in Nigeria Today” held in Lagos on Sunday.
He said, “Like the current trending case where the EFCC arrested some people in Kogi State on allegations of money laundering, I believe that case should not be the business of the EFCC, at all. Is it their business how Kogi spends their money? Even if it is their business, is it their lawful business to make that enquiry?
“The Supreme Court has recently said in one of its judgments that the EFCC cannot be a jack of all trades and that they should concentrate on what the law empowers them to do under Section 46 of their Act.
“It is not the duty of the EFCC to be chasing the Kogi State Government and threatening to storm the State House to seize documents or harass the Accountant-General of the state.
“What the EFCC is currently doing is turning itself into a one-man Robin Wood riot gang. That must not be allowed and that is the impunity that I refer to.”
Agbakoba advised the commission to remember that Section 46 of the EFCC Act had narrowed down its functions and in a case where it wants to expand its functions; it must go to the National Assembly to do so.
He added, “If I were the lawyer to the Kogi State Government, what I would do is to go to court and tell the court that as a result of the Supreme Court judgment, the EFCC does not have the power to demand that we should provide documents or give them our accounting books.
“If we have lost money, we are the ones to complain and if we are not complaining or we are complicit in any fraud, then the appropriate agency to handle it is the ICPC or the state House of Assembly.
Agbakoba further urged all Presidential candidates to clearly state their commitments to the rule of law and the war against corruption.
“So the candidate (2023 election candidates) must tell us what they are going to do with all these agencies because we need to know if they are going to allow the EFCC to continue to engage in media trials and carry on as the attack dog of the Federal Government against other arms and levels of governments.”
According to him, it is important for Presidential candidates to clearly spell out their plans to tackle corruption, saying most of the investigating agencies had abandoned their duties to the EFCC.
“It is a big problem because it appears as if it is nobody’s job and the EFCC has somehow taken over the responsibility of all other agencies, thereby overreaching itself.
“I believe that the EFCC is overburdened with too much responsibility. I recently saw the EFCC Chairman, Bawa on television, saying that the Commission is auctioning forfeited properties seized from convicted criminals, which should not be his job.
“I challenge anybody to tell me anywhere in the world that an agency with the same functions as that of the EFCC does three distinct jobs of investigation, prosecution and disposal of seized or recovered assets.
“I believe what the EFCC should do is to face investigation, as is done by similar agencies around the world. The commission is not an agency that is capable of effectively prosecuting cases. This is the reason they do not win most of their cases in court.
“I will strongly recommend that the prosecutorial power of the EFCC should be transferred to a new National Prosecution Agency. The Department of Public Prosecution in the Federal Ministry of Justice could be carved out and made independent to perform this role,” he said.
“We also need a new body that will deal with recovered assets and other proceeds of crime so that the EFCC can face its primary function of investigating financial and economic crimes,” he added.
