Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has lambasted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over what he described as unwarranted media trial of the Kogi State Government as regards the fresh case against a nephew of the Governor and the previous N20 billion bail-out controversy.
Agbakoba who spoke at a press conference on “The Rule of Law in Nigeria,” held on Sunday, specifically noted that the EFCC was turning itself into a one-man Robin Hood riot gang, which must not be allowed.
According to him, how a state spends its money should not be the business of the anti-graft agency.
According to the former NBA president, the Supreme Court recently said in one of its judgments 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 how Kogi spends their money? Even if it is their business, is it their lawful business to make that enquiry?
“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.
“So the candidates (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.”
On the 2023 election, Agbakoba noted that although some of the candidates had released their manifestos, their positions on how they would tackle corruption and also relate with the various anti-corruption agencies were not well spelt out.
He said, “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.”
“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.
