EFCC Seeks NBA’s Help Over Stalled Cases

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Chief (Mrs.) Farida Waziri has called on the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA to prevail on its senior members to assist the Commission in the prosecution of high profile cases stalled in various courts across the country.

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The call was made by the Chairman of the Commission, Mrs Farida Waziri when she led management staff and members of the board of the commission on a courtesy visit to the National Secretariat of the NBA in Lagos.

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 an important 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 also frowned at the activities of some unscrupulous lawyers who fraudulently obtain money from their clients under the pretext of delivering same as bribe to officers of the commission to ‘kill’ cases under investigation. She urged the leadership of the NBA to invoke the code of ethics of the association against such errant members.

Explaining the reason for her visit, the EFCC Chair, said it was to familiarize herself with the new leadership of the bar and to solicit their support for the success of the anti graft war.

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Speaking further on the challenges of prosecuting corruption and money laundering cases, Mrs. Waziri explained that the Commission had had difficulties engaging the services of top notch legal luminaries due to the high legal fees demanded by them but noted that EFCC needed the muscle of such representation to match the defence in high profile corruption cases. She therefore appealed to NBA to recommend good lawyers that could join the Commission’s prosecution team.

Responding, the NBA President, Chief Akeredolu, SAN thanked Waziri and her team for the visit. He assured that the NBA was fully 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 declared. He said the NBA frowns at the activities of some of its members who stall the fight against corruption and financial crimes, assuring that definite action would be taken against such members at the association’s National Executive Committee meeting coming up in February.

In the same vein, Chief Akeredolu urged the EFCC to report lawyers caught collecting money from their clients ostensibly as bribes for EFCC ; assuring that the association would waste no time in de-listing such members.

Akeredolu also expressed relief over Waziri’s explanation that she was ‘betrayed’ in the plea bargain arrangement that culminated in the conviction of former Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion. Otherwise, he said he would have been scandalized as plea bargaining presupposes that the parties had reached some kind of understanding. To avoid such confusion in the future, he suggested a workshop on Plea Bargain that would be jointly organized by the Commission and the NBA.

He also advised the commission to appeal against the Court of Appeal, Kaduna ruling in the James Ibori case that suspects are better tried in places where the offence is committed as it could have negative effect on the prosecution of persons currently standing trial for corruption and money laundering.

The NBA President promised to recommend competent 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 that could arise. “We know of one or two people today who are prosecuting and defending. That is not right”, he said.

All this na delay tactics, abeg .

Oh, she's now a CThief