WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2011-07-25 Time: 17:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Theophilus Abbah, Abdul-Rahman Abubakar, Nuruddeen M. Abdallah And Ismail Adebayo
The judiciary is not left out. In response to accusations of delay in hearing cases of corruption, judges complain that the anti-graft agencies’ cases are not water-tight. With so many loopholes in their cases, the ICPC and EFCC are asked to return to the drawing boards to firm up their evidence against suspects. On the part of the Ministry of Justice, one of the temptations of every Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice since 2007, is the craving to clip the wings of the EFCC and put it under their armpit. In the circle of the triangular complaints, the proverbial commonwealth of the country is being looted brazenly. Two recent steps to reposition the agencies are being interpreted like an ass. They are strengthening and weakening the agencies, depending on who is making the judgement.
How does AGF Adoke plan to ‘correct’ the EFCC?
At his second coming, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), seems to be throwing his weight around to ‘put the EFCC on the right footing.’ What his predecessor, Chief Michael Aondoakaa made a fussy attempt to voice out, Adoke has boldly carried out and he is courageous about it. In a gazette dated September 21, 2010, the AGF has rolled out 27 rules which the EFCC must comply with in carrying out its operations. They cover procedures of receiving complaints, investigations, arrests and granting of bail, entry, search, inspection, seizure, forfeiture and disposal of property, prosecution of cases, petition and grants. One of the sections requires that cases exceeding N50 million must be referred to the AGF before any prosecution takes place. By implication, almost all cases being handled by the EFCC would have to be referred to the AGF for prosecution. At the moment, the EFCC has 1,500 cases pending in courts, including 65 high profile cases involving former ministers, governors and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Under the current atmosphere, all these case files must be submitted to the AGF’s office for review and, if necessary, proper action.
During his first tenure, the AGF’s intervention in several cases led to plea bargains, a slap on the wrists of individuals and organizations accused of financial crimes. The new gazette is like hammering the nail on the head. For instance, the Vaswani Brothers who were accused and sent packing from Nigeria over N3 billion tax evasion, were pardoned and asked to resume operations in Nigeria. The cases of former Comptroller General, Ahmed Bello (N2.5 billion) and Chief Kenny Martins’ Police Equipment Fund (N5 billion) have been parried. So also is the case of 17 Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) officials involving over N5 billion suspectedly misappropriated, which has been inconclusive. The case of Rural Electricity Agency (REA), involving some lawmakers is being reviewed because of a new thinking that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute the suspects. Then there were the cases involving foreign companies, including Siemens, Julius Berger and Halliburton, who were left off the hook through plea bargain. Their Nigerian accomplices are yet to face prosecution.
The new rules are coming into effect at a time when the EFCC is mourning the death of a bill which would have empowered the agency to forfeit the assets of suspected corrupt persons. The bill which was sponsored by the United Nations is in tandem with a law in operation in developed countries like the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Its philosophy is that if the agency freezes the assets of a person accused of corruption, he would not be able to enjoy those proceeds of the fraud for which he is being prosecuted until he proves to the court of law that he lawfully acquired those items. This bill was thrown out by the House of Representatives, though, during public hearing, it was acclaimed to be vital to the fight against corruption.
Senate moves to scrap ICPC
The Senate has since commenced legislation towards the dissolution of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC). A bill seeking to repeal the ICPC Act has gone through first reading and will soon be introduced for debate on general principles. The bill standing in the name of Senator Ita Enang (PDP, Akwa Ibom) is seeking to among several other things, repeal the ICPC Act and merge the commission with its sister agency; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Prior to the move, there have been agitations by stakeholders on the need to merge the two agencies. No thanks to its low profile in the fight against corruption, the ICPC is seen as the weaker of the two agencies, hence it doesn’t come as a surprise that it is picked for the sacrifice. The EFCC is perceived to be more vibrant with the prosecution of several top politicians in the country. The media hype that always accompany such processes has more than any other factor, put the EFCC on the spot as the more effective of the anti-graft agencies in the country.
The bill under consideration at the Senate, provides that, “there shall be vested in the EFCC, all assets and liabilities, funds, resources and other movable and immovable properties which immediately before the commencement of the Act, were vested in or were in the possession or under the control of the ICPC.” By this provision, the EFCC is to consume all structures that were ICPC.
This doesn’t stop with the properties and liabilities alone. The EFCC is at liberty to inherit staff of the ICPC that it can operate with. The bill provides that “notwithstanding the dissolution of the ICPC; staff of the ICPC may be: (a) transferred to the services of the EFCC; or (b) transferred to the service of any department or Agency of the government. (c) resigns from the service of ICPC by giving notice in writing.
The bill also provides that “if it be expedient that any vacancy in the commission should be filled by a person holding office immediately before the commencement of this Act in the ICPC, it shall retain the services of the person and the previous services by such person shall count as service for the purpose of seniority.”
In place of the ICPC, the bill has increased the role of the EFCC to cover investigation and prosecution of all cases of corruption in the public and private sector. The EFCC is to have additional powers that include, “receiving, investigating and prosecution of offenders where reasonable grounds exist for suspecting that any person has conspired or has attempted to commit or has committed an offence under this Act or any other law prohibiting corruption.”
Senate’s action is however sequel to the position of the Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN). During the ministerial confirmation hearing, the AGF berated the activities of the anti-graft agencies, describing as confused as to their specific roles in the fight against corruption. The minister said though both agencies have clear cut roles to play in the anti corruption crusade, they have become confused and are sometimes overlapping into each other’s terrain.
The minister did not stop at that. Shortly after his reappointment a new guideline was released for the operation of the EFCC. The agency is now to take direct orders from the AGF as to the prosecution of all corruption cases that exceed N50 million. Adoke had told the Senate that the EFCC was a busybody that always rushed to the courts even before gathering enough evidence to nail a suspect. He said the federal government has spent huge amounts on prosecutions only to lose in court due to lack of sufficient evidence against the accused persons. He cited the case of Kenny Martins, Gabriel Adukwu and the Vaswani brothers as examples of high profile cases that the EFCC could not win due to want of evidence.
Senate is amending the EFCC Act to further strengthen the agency. That move will however, make little impact as the independence of the body is being tampered with. The new guideline for the EFCC will make the AGF the single most powerful individual in the country. This is possible basically due to the fusion of two offices in one. As minister of justice, he is in charge of all judicial policies while as AGF, he is the chief prosecuting officer. He alone now has the power to determine who is to be tried or otherwise. He now determines the meaning of ‘sufficient’ evidence.
Findings by Sunday Trust revealed that the ICPC has a total workforce of about 460, of which only about 100 are investigators. The agency has only about 100 lawyers in its payroll. “By the Act establishing it, the ICPC is an independent organisation. It is underfunded deliberately to undermine its independence. ICPC gets about N2 billion per annum. With this amount and less than 500 workforce; how do you expect it to effectively fight corruption in a population of over 150 million,” the source asked.
“It may interest you to know that the Attorney General is only hijacking the statutory functions of the ICPC. By law, ICPC doesn’t refer any of its cases to the AGF. But you can see that AGF Adoke has recently hijacked the cases of Dr Hassan Lawan, former Minister of Health and that of the National Judicial Council (NJC). We prosecute our cases. It is not the business of the AGF,” sources said.
Section 3 (6) of the Act, provides that, “the chairman and members of the Commission who shall be persons of proven integrity, shall be appointed by the president, upon confirmation by the Senate.”
Thus, the president is the only authority with the powers to appoint the chairman and members of the Commission.
The AGF, on the other hand, is not empowered to appoint the chairman and members of the commission. Rather, the practice has been that the president upon appointing the chairman and members, conveys such directive through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. “This has been the tradition since the inception of the commission and this process protects the
independence of the commission,” the source said.
Emphasising the independence of the commission, Section 3 (14) of the Act, states that, “the Commission shall in the discharge of its functions under this Act, not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.” Since the commission is not a parastatal of any ministry or agency, it is dangerous for the Attorney-General to interfere with the business of the commission with respect to the appointment of its chairman or members, analysts said.
The commission, it was gathered, is prosecuting over 500 corrupt cases in various courts across the country. “The politicians are afraid of the ICPC. We do a thorough job here. We don’t play to the gallery. Despite the frustrating nature of court proceedings, we got several landmark convictions. We prosecuted and convicted the former NDLEA boss, Lafiagi, after he was said to have been cleared by the EFCC. We do our job professionally. That is why we don’t amend our charges once they are filed before the courts of law,” the source said.
“The same people who are bent on sabotaging the ICPC were the same people who pressurised former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, to write to us to transfer Siemens case to EFCC. It was on record that our former Chairman, Justice Ayoola had never been summoned to the presidential villa,” the source said.
Some of the high profile cases pending before the ICPC included that of former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor; Dr Muhammed Shata and late S. M. Afolabi over the national ID card scam, among others.
The cases are taking longer times, according to the ICPC media consultant, Mr Folu Olamiti, because of frequent and unnecessary injunctions. He said that there is need for special courts to try corruption cases to avoid the slow pace of justice delivery.
Anti-graft bodies operating from disadvantaged position -Professor Akinseye
On whether theEFCC and ICPC should be merged to make the anti-graft agency more efficient, Professor Yemi Akinseye George, a lecturer at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, submitted that it should be subjected to public debate. “The discourse must be conducted scientifically. It’s too important to be handled casually. There are good points to be advanced on both sides of the debate. To my mind, what the AG should be taken as saying is that after ten years of the fight against corruption, we need to review the entire campaign. How much money has gone into the fight? What results have been achieved? We need to take stock. What lessons have we learnt as a nation? What challenges are confronting the anti-corruption bodies: EFCC and ICPC. Quite frankly, these agencies have a tough job. Corruption is endemic. Yet there are undeniable cultural and constitutional obstacles which make the prosecution of corruption extremely difficult. The agencies are underfunded.
They lack the necessary cooperation of the public because it seems as if public officials are expected to be corrupt. Access to government funds have become the fastest means of acquiring wealth. All the billionaires made their money from government legitimately or otherwise. It is alright if they are adding value, creating jobs and investing in the future of young people. The worst form of corruption is to hide the loot abroad. We need to take stock. We need a comprehensive strategy against corruption. President Goodluck Jonathan needs to lead the development of that strategy. It must involve the prevention of corruption. Prosecution of corruption alone will not take us far. How many people do you want to prosecute when there are so many corrupt people who are being hailed by their relatives and political supporters? The President needs to personally lead the fight. The anti-corruption agencies watch his body language. Mere talk is cheap. Mere rhetorical posturing against corruption will not do. How rich is our president and his family? The man now has shoes. How many Nigerians can afford to wear shoes? So far, I must say, he has not come out strongly against corruption… Former governors are now sitting in the senate. They want to make more money. They will not make any laws which will strengthen the anti-corruption bodies. The anti-corruption bodies are operating from a disadvantaged position. No wonder there are fewer prosecutions of former governors now than before. The cases are not getting anywhere. Once the lawyers are paid well, they use their legal tactics to secure bail and that’s the end. The accused will then contest another election because the law presumes him innocent.
Professor Akinseye argued there is need for a National Action Plan to combat corruption. This he said, must involve all sectors of the economy. “The president must personally lead the preparation of the plan. It is more important than the provision of electricity or infrastructure. I doubt whether we are sincere about fighting corruption. It is still business as usual. Inflation of contracts, non-performing contracts; abandoned projects; white elephant projects; poor execution of contracts; lack of value for money; poor budget implementation; lack of transparency, etc. The National Assembly, the Judiciary, the press, labour organisations, the banks, the civil society, professional bodies, religious bodies, community associations, schools, civil service etc- all must be involved and mobilised against graft. It must involve the removal of the constitutional factors that feed corruption and reform of our laws. The plan will have three main components: (a) Access to information in the real sense (b) access to economic resources including credit by a greater majority of Nigerians and (3) access to justice. Without these three, corruption will continue unabated.”
Original Source: 
Original date published: 24 July 2011
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201107250886.html?viewall=1