By John Owen Nwachukwu Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the I...
By John Owen Nwachukwu
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has said that the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices
and Other Related Offences Commission, have come to stay.
This is amid the controversial calls to scrap the EFCC.
About 16 governors across the country are seeking the
scrapping of the anti-graft agency.
DAILY POST reports that sixteen state governors filed a suit
challenging the legality of the laws establishing the agency.
The Supreme Court had on Wednesday fixed October 22 to hear
the suit.
The states that joined in the suit filed originally by the
Kogi State Government include Ondo, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, Nassarawa, Kebbi, Katsina,
Sokoto, Jigawa, Enugu, Benue, Anambra, Plateau, Cross River and Niger.
The 16 states are relying on the fact that the constitution
is the supreme law and that any law that is inconsistent with it is null and
void.
However, Falana, who appeared on Channels Television’s
Sunday Politics, advised the states that rather than challenging the legality
of EFCC, they should seek measures to ensure that the agency is not under the
government’s control.
“For me, the ICPC and the EFCC like the Code of Conduct
Tribunal, have come to stay. What we should be demanding are measures to make
these institutions autonomous, not under the control of any government,” Falana
said on the programme.
“And the Supreme Court has maintained rather repeatedly
concerning the EFCC and EFCC; that these are common, they shouldn’t be under
the control of the Federal Government.
“They are common agencies to fight economic crimes in our
country, to fight financial crimes in our country, to fight corruption in our
country.”
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