The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday faulted a suggestion by the new President of the Nigeria Bar Association NBA, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), that the anti-graft agency be stripped of its prosecutorial powers.
The EFCC which made its position known in a statement by its Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren said the recommendation of the NBA President was self-serving.
It said the suggestion was in line with a larger plot to emasculating the agency. His words:
โAs the Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu has repeatedly stated in his public pronouncements, the agency is open to suggestions that will improve its operations as it cannot pretend to have a monopoly of ideas on how to fight corruption.
โNevertheless, the Commission views with concern, the call by the NBA president that the EFCC be stripped of its prosecutorial powers.
โAccording to him, โWe need to define its mandate more narrowly and more clearlyโฆ I strongly recommend that the EFCC be limited to investigationโฆ while prosecution should be handled by an independent resource prosecution agency.
โThe Commissionโs discomfort over this seeming innocuous proposition stems from the fact that Mahmoud was silent on the reason for his position.
โMore importantly, the Commission cannot comprehend how the redefinition of EFCCโs mandate in narrow terms, ultimately whittling it down, fits into the clamour by Nigerians and the vision of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for a vibrant and courageous anti-corruption agency.
โInstead, Mahmoudโs suggestion appears perfectly in sync with a cleverly disguised campaign by powerful forces that are uncomfortable with the reinvigorated anti-graft campaign of the EFCC and are hell-bent on emasculating the agency by stripping it of powers to prosecute with the tame excuse that an agency that investigates cannot also prosecute.
โThe question Nigerians must ask the Mahmoud-led NBA is what is wrong with EFCC prosecution? Mahmoud is in a position to answer this question. He was the counsel of Attorney-General of the Federation in the trial of former Delta State governor, James Ibori at the Federal High Court, Asaba, a case which EFCC lost in questionable circumstances.
โ Mahmoud is also the Commissionโs counsel in the appeal against the infamous perpetual injunction from arrest and prosecution by former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili, which is still pending before the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, many years after it was filed.
โIt is too much of a strange coincidence that the suggestion to strip the EFCC of its prosecutorial powers is being floated few months after the Commission, in unprecedented fashion arraigned some senior lawyers for corruption.
โFor the avoidance of doubt, the Commission has recorded more convictions in the last one year than all the states and federal ministries of justices combined.
โAgainst this background, the current campaign appears to be self-serving, intended to create a cabal of untouchables who can be investigated but may never be prosecuted.
โThe EFCC however wishes to reassure Nigerians that there will be no sacred cows in the renewed fight against corruption in Nigeria.โ
Notwithstanding, the EFCC said it was a good omen that the NBA President has pledged to fight judicial corruption.
โThe 56th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association came to an end August 26, in Port Harcourt with the bar making pronouncements on major issues of national importance.
โOne of the new commitments as articulated by the new President of the Association, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, is to reinvent the association by reclaiming its moral high ground through a campaign for ethical rectitude by members of the bar.
โThe NBA under my watch will fight judicial corruption. We shall make the legal profession unattractive for corrupt lawyers,โ he said.
โThis is reassuring considering the evidence that senior members of the Bar have become complicit in cases of corruption and money laundering, leading to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arraigning two members of the inner bar for acts of corruption.
โA Bar populated or directed by people perceived to be rogues and vultures cannot play the role of priests in the temple of justice.
โThe EFCC appreciates the NBAโs acknowledgement of the Commissionโs strategic place in the fight against corruption in Nigeria and the modest achievements that it has recorded so it. It also welcomes the suggestion for reform.โ
