By Tony Amokeodo

THE Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdullahi Mustapha, has dismissed a suit seeking to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe the alleged billions of naira spent on the ill-fated third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.


In his judgment on a suit by a Lagos -based lawyer, Mr Onu Uche, Justice Mustapha held that the anti-graft agency could not be compelled to investigate any allegation of crime, insisting that the EFCC had the discretion on whether or not to conduct an investigation on any crime.

Uche had filed an order of mandamus, compelling the EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, to immediately commence investigations into several billions of naira that were allegedly channelled from the public funds into the third term project.

The plaintiff also sought an order mandating the EFCC to investigate all the principal actors involved in the third term agenda and another order for the EFCC to initiate proceedings against the organisers, in the event of their being found culpable during investigation.

He contended that the action of the EFCC refusing to investigate the allegation was contrary to section 6 and 7 of the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004.

But the CJ held that, ”To my mind, if the position of the law is that the police and by extension the EFCC cannot be compelled to investigate an allegation of crime, it would therefore, not be a judicial or judicious exercise of discretion to grant the reliefs.