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A report that the courts have frustrated the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s investigation of corruption cases in 10 states of the federation is unsettling. The EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, reportedly said suspects facing criminal investigations often run to court to obtain injunctions restricting the commission from investigating or prosecuting them. Frequent adjournments of high-profile cases, conflicting court orders, and reliance on technicalities in deciding serious corruption cases also hamper the commission’s work.
“The incidence of suspects facing criminal investigation rushing to court to obtain orders of injunction restraining the commission from inviting, investigating, interrogating, and arresting them, including some state governments, has become rampant and worrisome,” Olukoyede said at an event in Abuja on October 7th.
“At the last count, the commission is unable to conduct an investigation in at least 10 states of the federation. This is in spite of the clear pronouncements by appellate courts that law enforcement agencies cannot be restrained in carrying out their statutory duties.”
This is sad. Corruption hurts everyone but the poor are the worst hit. Therefore, the judiciary, presumed to be the last hope of the common man, should be the EFCC’s strongest ally in containing the monster of corruption. And both being creations of the law makes it even more compelling for them to collaborate to reverse the trend.
But high-profile crooks have always sought to cover their tracks and avoid being brought to justice. More so when the government lacks the will to act, and the police are cowed or compromised. Cases involving billions are stalled as a result. By 2003 when the EFCC was set up with Nuhu Ribadu as its pioneer chairman, Nigeria was listed among the 23 countries deemed uncooperative in the fight against global financial corruption and money laundering. Advance-fee fraud popularly called 419 in local parlance was rife. Nudged by the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the United States—known as the G7―the then-president Olusegun Obasanjo established the EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission having come on stream three years earlier.
“I identified corruption as the greatest single bane of our society, which was why I set up the ICPC and the EFCC to tackle it headlong. Corruption drains billions of dollars from our economy,” Obasanjo would say later.
Ribadu got off to an impressive start, charging prominent bankers, former state governors, high-profile politicians, ministers, and senators. His boss in the police at the time, Inspector-General Tafa Balogun, was arrested, tried, and convicted, and made to return £150 million under a plea deal. Ribadu’s EFCC pulled off 270 convictions. Only the case of Dr Peter Odili proved too tough for the commission to crack. In 2007, when Odili was governor of Rivers State, the narrative was that Ribadu had reported that Odili allegedly diverted N100 billion from the Rivers State coffers. Odili approached the court pleading that any attempt by the EFCC to investigate the state’s finances would be “prejudicial to the smooth running of the governance in Rivers State.”
Justice Ibrahim Buba obliged him, granting a perpetual injunction against his invitation, interrogation, arrest, or prosecution over the allegation. That injunction still stands despite Ribadu’s efforts to vacate it. It has raised questions about whose interest the perpetual injunction has served, the Rivers people, whose money was allegedly diverted, or Odili who was accused of diverting the money.
Olukoyede seeks synergy with the judiciary in fighting corruption. Indeed, without it, the onslaught against sleaze will be fruitless. And where members of the Bar and the Bench are complicit in frustrating the EFCC with restraining and conflicting orders, perpetual injunctions, and judgments based on technicalities, regulatory organisations like the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nigerian Judicial Council should sanction their erring members. The much-trumpeted judiciary reform should kick off, and sanctioning compromising members should be a priority. Some senior lawyers have pointed out that frivolous injunctions and other judicial malpractices are rampant because no one is held accountable. This should change.
With judges now enjoying a pay raise, the EFCC should also be well-motivated and equipped with forensic resources. They should equally partner with international agencies to track down fleeing suspects. To be effective and credible, the EFCC must avoid politicising its work. Wishy-washy investigations will do the agency no good. Neither will the media trial as per the Yahaya Bello case. The EFCC must ensure any case is water-tight before announcing it.
