[size=14pt]Lawyers serve as bribe couriers for corrupt public officers [/size]- EFCC - Accuses SANs of frustrating anti-graft war

Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 02.02.2009

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed that lawyers now made themselves available as bribe couriers to corrupt public officers being investigated by the commission. Chairman of EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, who said this during a visit to the national secretariat of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), also accused senior lawyers of frustrating the fight against corruption, saying they stalled prosecution of their clients beng tried by the commission.

A statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the spokesperson of the commission, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said “Mrs. Waziri has called on the NBA to prevail on its senior members to assist the commission in the prosecution of cases stalled in various courts across the country.” Waziri, who was received by the NBA President, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), lamented that some of the commission cases in court had dragged unnecessarily and blamed the situation on the antics of some senior members of the bar whom, she said, were in the habit of exploiting the weakness of the nation’s judicial processes by filling frivolous applications to frustrate the trial of suspects for corruption and money laundering.

The situation, according to her, was frustrating, as rate of conviction was a yardstick for measuring the effectiveness of any law enforcement agency.“When you fight this kind of war without achieving conviction, the impact is not felt,” she said. Waziri frowned at the activities of some unscrupulous lawyers who fraudulently obtained money from their clients under the pretext of delivering same as bribe to officers of the commission to ‘kill’ cases under investigation.

Chief Akeredolu thanked Waziri and her team for the visit while assuring them that the NBA was committed to the fight against corruption and financial crimes.“NBA is prepared to cooperate with EFCC in all respect so that we can win this war,” he said. He urged the EFCC to report lawyers caught collecting money from their clients ostensibly as bribes for EFCC, assuring that the association would de-list such.

The NBA President promised to recommend lawyers that could bolster the legal team of the commission but warned against the practice of appointing as prosecutor, a lawyer that was already defending a client against the commission to avoid the conflict of interest.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/02022009/news/news16.html

Any step in Naija is a gain for one group and a loss for another. The complexities of a nation called Nigreria, you might say .