vigasimple:

I like designers things, like the EFCC designer wars. This WAZERO EFCC war is now against Business people who took loans, maybe not repaid for whatever reasons.

Nigeria's special fraud police say they are preparing to act against business tycoons who have failed to pay back billions owed to banks.

The move comes with the expiry of a deadline for those owing money to return it to the troubled banks.

The government was forced to rescue five banks and sack their entire leadership teams last week to save the banks from collapse.

Some senior bankers are in custody but two chief executives are on the run.

The pair are wanted in connection to allegations of money laundering, insider trading, capital market manipulation and abuse of credit process.

Controversially, the special fraud office is also hunting down the debtors.

Last week the central bank governor shamed some of the wealthiest people in Africa by naming them for not paying back massive loans.

Anti-fraud officials say some of the money has been returned, but huge amounts remain outstanding.

The deadline for repayment expires at midnight on Tuesday (2300 GMT).

Many legal experts say that debt is a civil matter and that the terms of the original loans still apply. They have questioned the legal basis of any further arrests.

''We can arrest them for conspiracy, together with the bankers," the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission head said.

"Some loans were given without collateral, some loans were given under some fictitious conditions," she said.

Nigeria's police use the word "arrest" very freely. It usually means they are questioning someone - and it does not carry any expectation of charges.

Ms Waziri went on to urge Nigeria's courts not to grant what she called ''frivolous injunctions'' protecting the debtors.

She said she knew that the debtors were holding secret meetings and were planning to sue the authorities.

They are a group of powerful vested interests who will fight to defend themselves.

But Nigeria's special fraud police are themselves controversial.

They are widely criticised here as having lost their way in the fight against corruption.

And their insistence that debtors make cheques of millions of dollars payable to them provoked amusement and cynicism.

EFCC engaged in futile showmanship

By Ruona Agbroko

August 27, 2009 12:34AMT



Lawyers across the country have described as ‘hasty’, ‘misdirected’ and ‘publicity-seeking’ moves by the chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Farida Waziri, to relocate to Lagos and unleash a debt recovery team on individuals and companies indebted to the five stressed banks whose management were recently sacked by the apex bank.

The EFCC had disclosed that, following the expiration of its ultimatum to the debtors yesterday, 100 operatives of the agency were being added to the 250 already in Lagos, while an extra 40 mobile police officers would join in the task of investigating and prosecuting debtors.

However, lawyers who spoke to NEXT yesterday unanimously said by acting as a debt recovery unit, the agency had derailed.

Jiti Ogunye, head of the Lawyers League for Human Rights, said “the recovery of money is secondary. That is not the primary reason why the EFCC should be interested in these cases. If a financial crime has been committed in getting these loans, if the debtors pay within a deadline, does that mean the person has not committed a crime? The EFCC is engaged in showmanship and an odious game of spontaneity.

It now has a penchant of just gate-crashing, arresting people and charging them to courts with no jurisdiction to hear these cases. They do not follow through on the cases. They are content to leave it at this stage so long as there are screaming headlines saying EFCC is working.”

Crying wolf

The EFCC’s recent press statements and news reports on the issue also received some flak.

Mr. Ogunye said the agency’s motives were less than honourable. “This is blue-collar crime, perpetuated over a period of time. By law, the EFCC is supposed to be getting reports from its financial intelligence unit on these banks. Where was EFCC when these people were going to the capital market, giving or taking these huge loans that created huge holes in the system? The questions Nigerians have to ask is: why did the EFCC have to wait for the CBN to uncover this before it jumped in the fray?

If the EFCC really wants to act, it should be more proactive and give up this showmanship.

Bamidele Aturu, a legal practitioner, said the EFCC would be better off showing more civility in its dealings. “The EFCC must not take the laws into its hands. The courts are there to resolve these matters. The courts themselves must not become instruments to avoid repayment of loans which people took from the banks.

Chinua Asuzu, an attorney and rights activist, said the frenzy by the EFCC would prove counter-productive. “The fact that one is not paying a loan to the bank is not a crime. It is only when there is deliberate collusion to avoid paying the loans and loans are distributed less than honourably, that there has been crime. In this respect, the EFCC is being very hasty in the arrests.

Some of the misconducts that have been committed by the banks are in the region of civil law. Though there are incidences of criminal behaviour, you don’t start with arrests. They have to start with finding out who are the culprits and determine the level of culpability. Their business is to determine and punish crime not enshrine banking ethics.” Mr. Asuzu added that in its haste, the EFCC had neglected to consider the costs of prosecuting these cases against the monies to be recovered, as the final implications of these investigations would still be borne by taxpayers.

Mr. Ogunye disclosed that the EFCC may have already begun to pay for its failure to adequately prove criminal intent in the disbursement of the bank loans, as senior lawyers were headed for the courts and obtaining orders against the EFCC on the grounds that individuals were being detained unlawfully, beyond 48 hours. “Waziri is saying they are looking for others so they can prosecute all these cases together. I forsee the EFCC being swamped by more of these orders”, he said.

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Lamido Sanusi, had a closed-door meeting with Mrs. Waziri in Lagos on Wednesday.

Sanusi breezed into the premises of the commission at about 3:35p.m. amid tight security. The registration number of the lead vehicle of the convoy was ABUJA BJ 258 GWA.
The CBN governor who wore a butter colour suit left at about 4:30p.m.

When contacted on the outcome of the meeting, the anti-graft agency spokesman, Mr. Babafemi, simply said; “The meeting is in connection with the ongoing sanitization of the banking sector.

macfarland:

All the corrupt ex-gov who looters the treasury of their various states are busy wining and dining with President Yara Adua with the convenience of the ministers of injustice mike Aandoaka while EFCC is busy hunting the heads of people who have engaged in genuine busineses of many years creating jobs which govet itself cannot create, with the monies they have borrowed from these banks. is it the banks to prosecute money defaulters or the efcc? where in the world is it illegal to borrow from the bank? No one needs this kind of first class charade of deceving people after appointeing their Northern kinsmen to take over all the startegic positions in the financial sector and government posts. The action of Sanusi is nothing more than reading and acting the script of the Northern Angenda to hijack the economy and positoin itself against the percieved enemies of YaraAdua in the 2011 presidential election. Well I hail the Northerners they are using their brains smartly but it may not work out well at the end of the day. The entire world is watching you!