Nigeria: EFCC Has No Power to Prosecute Corrupt ex-Governors - SANs

[Ian David]

Black Collar Crime
Vanguard (Lagos)

27 July 2007
Posted to the web 27 July 2007

Ise-Oluwa Ige

Before President Olusegun Obasanjo completed his tenure of office on May 29, this year, the most vociferous anti-graft agency established by his regime--the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), vowed to hunt down, a total 33 state outgoing governors in the law courts. The Chairman of the Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who disclosed that prima facie case of corruption had been established against the governors said that none of them would escape justice.

He had said that the only obstacle militating against their prosecution was the constitutional immunity enjoyed by them then. Although many a Nigerians did not like the modus operandi of the anti-graft agency, demystifying corrupt governors by way of arrest, detention and prosecution by the agency, was a welcome development. On the eve of the hand over date, many had thought that not less than 20 governors would be arrested by men of the commission, preparatory to their arraignment between May 29 and 30, 2007.

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The conclusion purportedly reached after the meeting was that the case files of the affected corrupt outgone governors be transferred to ICPC for a radical review and possible prosecution while EFCC was purportedly charged to limit itself to prosecution of economic and financial crimes. Some Nigerians even insinuated that because of the proposed Government of National Unity, none of the alleged corrupt ex-governors would be prosecuted. Although the rumours making the rounds wondered why EFCC was not kicking for different reasons, one fact was however common to all the insinuations which was that there would be no prosecution of any ex-governor allegedly found guilty of corruption by EFCC for now.

Which was why it came as a surprise when information filtered into various newsrooms of media houses, a couple of weeks back, that EFCC had sent a letter of invitation to about 15 governors for a chat. Of course, some governors honoured the invitation while others did not. Then, came the arrest of two ex-governors, Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia state who was deeply involved in the proposed Government of National Unity and Alhaji Saminu Turaki of Jigawa state. Also arrested were former Governor of Plateau State, Joshua Chibi Dariye, his Taraba counterpart, Reverend Jolly Tevoru Nyame and former Governor of Enugu state, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani. Within 48 hours after arrest, the legal department of EFCC had drawn up a multiple count charge of official corruption, stealing, money laundering, criminal diversion of monies and misappropriation of public funds against each of the detained ex-governors based on the facts available.

More:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200707270437.html



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