President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called
on Nigerians from all walks of life to come together and form formidable
unifying forces against economic and financial crimes and other acts of
corruption.
He gave the charge in Abuja on
Monday, October 7, 2024 while declaring open the 6th Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC- National Judicial Institute, NJI’s
Workshop for Justices and Judges. The President pointed out that
corruption had become a cancer denying the nation the full benefits of its
God-given resources and for its corrosive effects to be destroyed, Nigerians
must rise up combatively against it.
“ No Nigerian is immune from
corruption, a cancer which continues to deny the nation the full benefits of
its God-given resources. Rather than look up only to the anti-corruption
agencies for a solution to this malaise, I believe it is in our
enlightened collective interest to close ranks and aggressively tackle this
common enemy”, he said.
Tinubu, who spoke through Vice
President Kashim Shettima applauded rising improvement in the prosecution of
corruption matters owing to positive developments in the justice sector
reforms, admitted that challenges impeding the speedy adjudication of
corruption cases should be frontally tackled. Some of them, he
noted, include “ frivolous applications and appeals, intimidation of
judges by counsel, judgment not based on facts of cases but on
technicalities”. He commended the EFCC for its courageous and
focussed efforts in combating corrupt practices and pledged more support
to the Commission. “ We will also continue to support the work of the EFCC to
ensure that it continues to deliver its statutory mandate without let or
hindrance”, he said.
Executive Chairman of the
EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede amplified other challenges affecting speedy trial of
corruption cases. According to him, “ the spectre of frequent
adjournments of high profile corruption cases arising from frivolous
applications, conflicting orders by courts of coordinate jurisdiction in
corruption cases, intemperate contempt orders hauled at the Commission’s
leadership, unwarranted orders of injunction restraining the Commission
from investigating cases, are among a plethora of issues that bother the
EFCC”.
Owing to some of these challenges,
especially the incidence of suspects facing criminal investigation
rushing to court to obtain orders of injunction restraining the EFCC from
inviting, investigating, interrogating and arresting them,
Olukoyede stated that the Commission was unable to conduct investigation
in at least 10 states of the federation. In spite of all these, the
EFCC’s boss stressed that the Commission has been undeterred in its
works, engaging stakeholders locally and globally to tackle the monster
of corruption
As a Commission , our efforts at
integrating stakeholders in the fight against corruption are continuous.
Earlier this year, we held a Stakeholders Dialogue on the issue of
cybercrime where we equally unveiled the Commission’s new focus on
corruption prevention with the establishment of Fraud Risk Assessment and
Control. FRAC. We are convinced that it is ultimately more profitable to
prevent than to investigate and prosecute corruption cases”, he said.
The Workshop, themed “
Integrating Stakeholders in Curbing Economic and Financial Crimes”, drew a
mammoth crowd of stakeholders, policy makers, top government
officials, civil society organisations and anti-corruption bodies.
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice K.M.O Kekere Ekun stated
that, for every stakeholder in the anti-corruption corridor to be
integrated there would be a need for the establishment of a coherent and
unified structure for information sharing across institutions. “ No single
entity can have a complete view of the financial system, making it imperative
that information flows seamlessly among all stakeholder”, she said .
Attorney- General and Minister of
Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in his remarks, stated that building
strong legal frameworks, effective law enforcement and international
cooperation were imperative to combat financial crimes and unify stakeholders.
He also called for renewal of commitment to higher values to move the
nation forward. “ Let us renew our commitment to justice, integrity
and the well-being of our nation”, he said.
Other dignitaries that
graced the opening session of the Workshop include, former Secretary General of
the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Senate President, President of the
Court of Appeal, Justices of the Supreme Court, Court of
Appeal, High Court, among others.
