Time to reform EFCC
EFCC in a bid to legalize continuous detention of the detainees, took them to Court 10 in a magistrate court at Botanical Garden, located at Apapa road, Ebute Metta, at 7.00pm on Friday to seek extended detention order against them. The Guardian, Sunday, May 8, 2011, page 9.
7.00pm? Pray, are our courts open at 7pm?
THIS is the depth to which our nation anti-graft agency, funded with tax-payers funds, has suddenly sunken to before our very eyes. No single day passes without a damning story on the brazen impunity and scant regard for the law by EFCC as the only way the leadership knows to show that they deserve to be left at their jobs, but unfortunately to the detriment of the nation.
Only last May, apparently working in concert with the leadership of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), they went after the CEOs of banks who were removed from office two years ago, claiming discovery of new evidence. However, according to ThisDay, Wednesday, May 4, 2011, p7, A source close to the anti-graft commission informed ThisDay last night that the renewed onslaught against them was aimed at coercing them into a plea bargain with the commission.
Even the usually restrained flagship, The Guardian, has been compelled to lampoon the inefficiency and recklessness of EFCC. In its extensive editorial of June 1, 2011, p14, the paper unequivocally declared that the EFCC is giving a public showing either of incompetence or mischief.
Now, the returnee Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, who supervises EFCC, has joined the fray. At the Senate confirmation hearing, he bared his mind on EFCC thus: Most of our anti-corruption agencies lack the capacity to do thorough investigations. They lack capacity to collate evidences to sustain a charge and secure conviction in court and until we properly reform these agencies, we will continue to experience the problems we are experiencing today. (Emphasis mine)
There is therefore no shred of doubt that the leadership of EFCC has fallen short of expectations with the unnecessary controversies surrounding its activities lately, barely one month after the inauguration of President Jonathan. Never before in the history of Nigeria has a government agency hired the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as its counsel to prosecute its case involving the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of a Nigerian. Worse still, EFCC has been variously criticized for being lopsided in staffing (95% of its staff are alleged to be northerners while 95% of Nigerians it harasses are alleged to be southerners). We have also not forgotten how Barrister Daudu, EFCC counsel walked out on Justice Archibong!
Even President Goodluck Jonathan would by now not be too pleased with the daily revelations in the media on the subversion of the rule of law by EFCC, especially the harsh remarks by the nation Chief Law Officer at the Senate Ministerial screening. They have not only serially defied court orders to grant bail to bank chief executives in its detention, but have deteriorated to the level of chasing court bailiffs out of its offices when they come to serve them with court orders based on orders from above.
Some revelations of what is going on in EFCC are so shocking that you begin to wonder if there is rule of law in this country. Again hear the Minister of Justice: More often than not, people are arrested before they are investigated. They are arrested even before there is evidence. They traumatize them and the people are dramatically tried on the pages of newspapers and at the end of the day, when they are unable to prove their case, they end up blaming the courts. (ThisDay, Tuesday, July 5, 2011, ThisDay Lawyer, p. vii) How sad!
The allegations against EFCC are legion. They are accused of sending judges on off-shore training ostensibly to improve their skills.
Then this laughable story in The Guardian of Thursday, May 12, 2011 on page 5 that only recently, defence lawyers and relatives of detained bank chiefs chased operatives of the EFCC round Lagos as the Commission sought an ex parte order to remand them in custody for another two weeks.
In a mild drama that ensued, lawyers and relatives of the banks chiefs followed EFCC officials from the Awolowo road office of the Commission to a Magistrate court in Oyingbo, near Ebute Metta. EFCC had tried to avoid having any lawyers present by driving to Sabo, Yaba Magistrate court and then quickly making their way to Oyingbo in order to shake them off. Is this truly the path to justice?
It is now difficult to reconcile the charges in court with statements made by EFCC to the Press confirming what the Attorney General stated above.
The strategy is as follows: Plant damaging allegations against the accused in the media; it doesn’t matter whether or not these accusations have been thoroughly investigated. It doesn’t matter either, if they are true or false. Just say them in public or leak them to the media. Because the allegations are salacious, they will get prominent headlines in the media and in so doing, further damage the credibility of the accused and demonize him or her; and in damaging the character and reputation of the accused, the stories will enable us justify our actions.
Law-abiding Nigerians are therefore worried that the current leadership of EFCC is hardly respected outside Nigeria and is not warmly received by the government of the United States of America. Not a few Nigerians were also shocked last week when the EFCC Chairman, Farida Waziri, publicly disagreed with her boss Adoke Mohammed, SAN, Attorney General, who had strongly recommended the merger of ICPC and EFCC. Since when did public officers begin to fight for supremacy with their bosses on the pages of papers?
To urgently restore rule of law to our land, in addition to reconstituting the economic team, there is urgent need to reform EFCC if President Goodluck Jonathan hopes to succeed in his economic renewal agenda because the rule of law is a sine qua non for foreign investments.
Ms. Wariboko is a Port Harcourt based Human Rights Attorney