From Noah Ocheni, Lokoja
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has faulted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over media trial of Kogi State Government.
Agbakoba, who spoke at a press conference on “The Rule of Law in Nigeria Today”, held in Lagos on Sunday, noted that the EFCC was turning itself into a one-man Robin Hood riot gang over the fresh case against a nephew of the Governor and the previous N20 billion bail-out controversy.
“The EFCC for example plays a very strong role in the anti-corruption strategy of Nigeria but they are also one of the institutions most guilty of breaking the rule of law,” he said.
According to the former NBA President, the Supreme Court recently said in one of its judgements that the EFCC could not 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.
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 of how Kogi state spends their money?.”
“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.”
“My advice to the EFCC is that whatever they want to do, they should remember that there is a law that created them and they must also remember that Section 46 of the EFCC Act had stated and narrowed down their functions and in a case where they want to expand their functions, they must go to the National Assembly to do so.
“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.
“I will strongly recommend that the prosecutorial power of the EFCC 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.”
“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,” Agbakoba added.
