The Man, Aondoakaa
Posted by admin on 2007/8/13 12:01:57 (1367 reads)
Can the new Attorney-General be apolitical?

By Tony Orilade/Abuja

Ontil his appointment as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice by President Umaru Yar’Adua, he was a legal practitioner in civil, criminal, commercial, electoral matters and general litigation. He had appeared at all levels of the Nigerian courts structure and had contacts within the legal systems in Nigeria and overseas. Born on 12 June 1962, the University of Maiduguri-trained lawyer completed his elementary education at LEA Primary School, Ge Mbagwa in 1974. He proceeded to St. Gabriel’s Secondary School, Makurdi and obtained his WASC in 1979. He has been in private legal practice for 21 years.

No doubt, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was also acquainted with the 36-page Act establishing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The Ushongo, Benue State-born lawyer, who was conferred with the SAN honour in September 2006, was particularly not well informed of Section 6 (m) of the Act which provides that the Commission shall be responsible for “taking charge of, supervising, controlling, coordinating all the responsibilities, functions and activities relating to current investigation and prosecution of all offences connected with or relating to economic and financial crimes”. Under Section 7(1) (a) of the Act, the “Commission is specially empowered to cause investigations to be conducted as to whether any person, corporate body or organisation has committed an offence under this Act or other laws relating to economic and financial crimes”.

When, therefore, he reversed his position on the powers of EFCC and ICPC to initiate independent investigation and prosecution of those who commit economic crimes within 24 hours, it was naturally assumed that, since he is not infallible, he was trying to correct an error made in good faith.

However, the country’s chief law officer’s insistence that the EFCC and ICPC will continue to carry out their assignments under his direct supervision is suspect, to say the least. This is more so that his first assignment as a Minister was to initiate a memo which tried to whittle down the powers of the foremost anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria.

He had said: “In the course of prosecution which they will initiate independent of me, if I have good reasons to believe that they are not carrying out prosecution in conformity with the constitution, we will exercise the right of the Attorney-General under the constitution to take over the case or even discontinue where the facts permit.”

An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Anthony Agbonlahor, expressing sadness that such a threat was coming from the Attorney-General of the Federation, said: “This is a man who ordinarily should have been a source of hope and succour to the various anti-corruption bodies in the country.”

Humphrey Adedayo, another lawyer, was in agreement with Agbonlahor. “ You know,” he said, “in Nigeria we always try to push our personal ambition far above national interest. I want to say unequivocally, that more than 50 per cent of public officers occupying various offices today do not really have the interest of the nation at heart.”

He added: “I don’t know if Nigerians have forgotten so soon that he was one of the lawyers that stood in for former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Besides, he was former Governor George Akume’s lawyer when the anti-corruption agencies took up the fight of corrupt enrichment against him. Don’t also forget that these cases are on-going and his chambers are still handling them.” It is believed that the attorney-general harbours some animosity against the EFCC for the single-minded manner it handled cases against Aondoakaa’s clients and that this explains why he has been preoccupied with trying to render the EFCC impotent since he became the nation’s number one law officer. Adedayo, on his part, reasoned that the restrictions imposed on the anti-corruption bodies would “terribly injure the reputation of the Yar’Adua administration” , portraying it as being desperate to protect some corrupt persons currently being investigated by the EFCC and ICPC .

To buttress his point, the lawyer cited the case involving a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence which was referred to the Federal Ministry of Justice. He said the case had not reached an appreciable level because of bureaucratic problem.

This magazine learnt that it took a five-page submission by Rotimi Jacobs, counsel to EFCC, and another two-page argument entitled “Constitutionality of Criminal Prosecution Under other Laws, by the State House counsel, Mr. Gafai, to convince President Umaru Yar’Adua that the Attorney-General had not only misled him (the president), but that the decision had to be reversed.

“…Sections 6(m), 7(2), 13(2) of the EFCC Act have expressly conferred power on the EFCC to initiate criminal proceedings in any courts and in the exercise of the power to initiate criminal proceedings, the consent of the Attorney-General is not required both under the Act and under the constitution,” Jacobs reportedly said, quoting from the EFCC Act.

Gafai, on his part, was said to have cited a Supreme Court decision to buttress his argument. “There has been the contention whether officers prosecuting cases on behalf of agencies specially empowered by the laws setting up these agencies need clearance from the AGF as a condition precedent. But the Supreme Court in laying the matter to rest made a final pronouncement in the case of FRN v Osahon and 7 Others, 25 NSCQR, where in interpreting the meaning and intent of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it said it [the constitution] does not preclude other persons permitted by an existing law from prosecuting criminal cases nor do such persons require any fiat from the Attorney-General of the Federation to proceed,” Gafai said.

A Senator who requested anonymity told this magazine that what happened between the Justice Ministry and the anti-corruption agencies in Abuja last week can be likened to the biblical hand of Esau and voice of Jacob. “Even though I don’t have verifiable proof to support my claim, I still want to believe that the Minister is too lettered to fall into such a mess. I want to believe that he is being directed by forces far above him,” the Senator said. He added that it was to avoid being put in such compromising position that he campaigned against the emergence of a former governor as the Senate President of the sixth republic.

“What on earth would have made an ex-convict visit Mr. President in the Villa hours after his release from prison? What would make a man who had just been granted bail over the looting of his state’s treasury be a guest of Mr. President in the Villa? The Attorney-General did not see anything wrong in this ugly development; all he is quick to correct are the powers of the EFCC and ICPC which he considered too enormous and should therefore be slashed. It is very wrong, a bad signal coming from the nation’s number one law officer, and the earlier he is redeployed to a less sensitive ministry the better for this nation,” the Senator fumed. But is Aondoakaa a mole in Yar’Adua’s cabinet?



http://nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html

This conspiracy was masterfully crafted. To be honest I was also caught by their game as I wished Mallam Nuhu Ribadu will resign not knowing that was even the sole objective of the plot. Intrigues!!!! those who whittled down the powers of EFCC were the same people who went to the media with the story and yet they were the same people who approached Ribadu in sympathy asking him to resign.

T[b]his administration claims to have zero tolerance for corruption but the fact that the same administration will appoint someone who spent the last 4years defending treasury looters as AGF leaves more questions than answers[/b]. It is no coincidence that Micheal Aondoakoa's first assignment was the attempted assasination of the EFCC.
Inntitially I thought the AGF is simply being more loyal to his chambers and old friends than Nigeria, thus should resign or be sacked. I said this in the belief that he had misled the President or even when he will like to claim he acted in good faith, he should go for being unaware of subsiting Court Judgements on the same matter and thus should resign for being incompetent.

The truth is that its been a forthnight since we saw what could only be described as an attempt to encourage sleeze by the Presidency and yet heads are yet to roll. The AGF has not been axed and I think Nigerians should start asking the following questions:
Is Micheal Aondoakoa doing the President's dirty jobs and taking responsibility for the outcome? could Ibori's media onslaught against Ribadu accusing him of acting alone be a clue to what the actual policy of this administration on anti-graft is?

I only hope to be proven wrong with time by seeing Ibori actually appearing before the court.

are u into rap music [b][/b]

someone pls summarize

_{waka pass je je!}

wow no wonder! He is trying to make the EFCC toothless!
I think the Nigerian press(the main govt opposition) really have to pressure on this guy to resign his appointment as the minister for justice, this is not the type of unity govt we want!

A well accomplished govt prosecutor should be in charge! This guy definitely makes his money defending looters and saboteurs

PM NEWS

Kalu’s Trial: EFCC, Attorney-General Clash In Court 

By: admin

Published: 2007/9/5 - Read 745 times  Article Rated: 0.00

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By Nnamdi Felix /Abuja

A mild drama played out itself this morning at a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa, tackled Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the prosecution of the former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu.

The drama unfolded at the hearing of a matter instituted by the former governor of Abia State seeking to quash the charges slammed on him by EFCC for which he is currently standing trial.

Orji Kalu urged the court to declare his ongoing trial null and void since it was in violation of an earlier order granted by Justice A. You. Kalu to the Abia State High Court barring EFCC from arresting, detaining and prosecuting him.

In the course of the proceeding, Barrister Adebisi Adeniyi of the EFCC announced appearance for the federal government while Mr. Salihu Aliyu, the director of public prosecution also announced appearance for the federal government. This clash led to both lawyers being asked by the presiding Judge, Justice Babs Kuewumi, to go out and settle their differences on who to represent the federal government in the matter.

On their return, Salihu Aliyu of the DPP took over from Adeniyi of the EFCC. According to Salihu, “the attorney general and the minister of justice is the number one legal officer of this country and every other body or institution is subsumed under him.”

Orji Uzor Kalu, through his counsel, Chief Awa Kalu (SAN) stated that he sent a petition to the President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and similarly copied the chambers of the attorney general of the federation over the EFCC’s disobedience of a subsisting court order in view of the federal government’s resolve to abide by the rule of law.

He averred that the conduct of the EFCC in the prosecution of Orji Uzor Kalu is antithetical to the current stance of the federal government since a court order had earlier on restrained the anti-corruption body from prosecuting the former governor.

On his part, Salihu Aliyu informed P.M.News that the order being relied upon by the former governor was obtained without federal government representation. He attributed this to the prevailing circumstances in Umuahia, Abia State which was unsafe for the EFCC to make appearance while the matter was ongoing.

The presiding judge adjourned the matter on the request of Salihu Aliyu for a short adjournment to enable the attorney general file a counter affidavit.

Former governor Kalu was charged with alleged money laundering and embezzlement of public funds by the EFCC.

Ruling in Kalu’s bail application bid earlier, Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, granted him bail on 27 July in the sum of N100 million and two sureties in like sum.

The two sureties, she said must be tax payers with evidence of payment for three consecutive years, paid as and when due.

The former governor was to submit all his travel documents to the court and report to the EFCC Abuja office weekly.

The embattled former governor was particularly difficult as he refused all entreaties to appear before the commission which led to his dramatic arrest.

EFCC officials had laid an ambush for him at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja on his return from his United States trip on 12 July.

The officials accosted him, showed him a warrant for his arrest and was later asked to follow them to their office.

Kalu resisted the officials but he was persuaded by his aides to follow the EFCC operatives.

Subsequently, he was taken to the EFCC office in Abuja, detained and later transferred to Kuje Prison in Abuja.

Is it now safe to say Micheal Aondoakaa is on a clandestine mission,

If Yaradua does not sack this guy then he is not serious about fighting corruption, and we can only assume the Attorney General is doing his dirty job.

The question is on what grounds is the AG taking over the case, what was EFCC's offence and why is this position communicated in the Law Court and not before

Wahala dey ohhhh

Wow!!!! In countries like the US, the FBI under guidances from the AG stage sting
operations to weed out corrupt politicians. In Nigeria, our AGF seems to specialize
in devoting his energy to fighting on behalf of looters! I ask once again, is the EFCC
the biggest threat to public peace in Nigeria today? I suppose anyone on the side
of the looters may see them as such, its becoming more self evident where the AGF
loyalty lies.

Heck, our president is so pre-occupied with forming a unity government and preaching
against corruption that I am not sure he even realizes that if the EFCC is gutted, there
is nothing on the ground that can make any real attempt at prosecuting those to be
found wanting in his administration. Does he think preaching against corruption will
make it all go away?