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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has expressed dismay over the call for its overhaul, stating that those pushing for such are “feeling the heat of the work” of the commission.
The EFCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed this during his interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Monday.
The anti-graft agency was taken to the Supreme Court by 16 state governments challenging its legality. The suit was initiated by the Kogi State Government and joined by the Ondo, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, and Nassarawa state governments, among others.
A seven-member panel of justices, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, on Tuesday, fixed October 22 for a hearing.
However, Uwujaren defended the significance of the commission, stating that it is crucial to Nigeria’s fight against corruption.
“We are really shocked by what is happening. Nigerians should see through this shenanigan and oppose it because I don’t see how this country can survive without the EFCC, given the kind of corruption problem that we have. Nigeria cannot do without the EFCC.
“I am worried that, with the kind of problem we have with corruption in this country, some people would go to court to challenge the legality of the EFCC. For citizens in their states, I am not sure that the EFCC is their greatest problem. I doubt that this is the case. What you see playing out is simply people who are feeling the heat of the work of the EFCC and who want to derail what is going on within the EFCC.
“They see the EFCC as a threat, and purely that is what is playing out. I think Nigerians can see through the gimmick of those who are behind the challenge to the legality of the commission,” Uwujaren said.
The EFCC official noted that those behind the call for the overhaul are determined to “derail” the commission’s anti-corruption fight, stating, “So, people who are concerned about transparency and accountability will wish for the EFCC to be ‘killed’. Let me use the word ‘killed’ because that is the agenda.
“They simply want to derail the fight against corruption because they don’t want accountability in their domains.”
Meanwhile, lawyers and Senior Advocates, Dr Olisa Agbakoba and Femi Falana, have expressed divergent views on the constitutionality of the EFCC.
Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, wrote to the National Assembly about constitutional issues related to law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and factors inhibiting the government’s objective of abolishing corruption, as stated in Section 13 of the Constitution.
In two separate letters to the Senate and House of Representatives, dated October 14, 2024, he stated that the EFCC was an unlawful organisation that he believed was “unconstitutionally established.”
He said, “I very strongly believe the EFCC is unconstitutionally established. The powers under which it was established go beyond the powers of the National Assembly. The EFCC is an unlawful organisation.”
However, three days later, Falana, a human rights activist, in his letter to the National Assembly, opposed Agbakoba’s view.
He insisted that the former NBA president’s position was based on the premise that the establishment of the EFCC violated the basic principles of federalism.
