The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), has faulted Justice Ibrahim Buba of
the Federal High Court for granting a perpetual injunction to a former Governor
of Rivers State, Chief Peter Odili, which has scuttled the ex-governor’s
prosecution.
Buba’s order has prevented the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission and any other government anti-corruption agency
from prosecuting or arresting Odili, who was accused of allegedly embezzling
about N100bn of Rivers State money during his eight-year tenure as governor.
Sagay further stated that the case could be
reopened, adding that measures were being put in place to ensure that such an
order was never granted again.
The Senior Advocate of
Nigeria stated, “What is happening now is unconstitutional; that judgment was
unconstitutional. The judge who gave that perpetual injunction did what was
unconstitutional.
“In effect, he was saying
that the police should not do their work. He was removing the prosecutorial
powers of the police and the prosecution in Nigeria.
“It is illegal and Supreme
Court judgments have said so. So, the whole thing we should do now is to
restore legality so that if you are charged, you should be able to come to
court and defend yourself instead of asking that you should not be
investigated.
“That (Odili’s injunction)
is totally illegal and unconstitutional and not acceptable.”
Responding to reports that
the long delay in the case might have weakened the resolve of security agencies
as well as compromised evidence, Sagay urged law enforcement agencies not to
give up.
He added, “The important
thing is not to give up because if you give up, the whole system will collapse.
“Personally, I have said
any judge that gives an order of perpetual injunction against investigation,
interrogation and arrest, should be regarded as having committed a serious act
of wrongdoing, which should merit disciplinary action by the NJC. That is my
proposal and I am going to push it that it should be regarded as an action that
should attract discipline.
“I can assure you that
under the new system that we are all running, there is no case that will be
allowed to remain permanently under injunction. They will have to go through the
process and be declared guilty or not guilty; in case of suspended cases, where
a person is neither guilty nor innocent will no longer be allowed to exist.
“This case can be reopened,
definitely.”
On December 12, 2006, the
EFCC had issued an interim investigative report and prepared a draft of 223
charges against Odili, accusing him of embezzling N100bn during his tenure.
In a counter-move, the then
Attorney General of the state, and later Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister,
Odein Ajumogobia (SAN), on February 23, 2007, sued the EFCC, the then Speaker
of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and other defendants
in a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt.
In the suit, Buba of the
Federal High Court in Port Harcourt granted Odili’s prayer to bar the EFCC from
investigating, prosecuting or ever harassing him and officials of his
administration.
It was learnt that
the EFCC had filed an appeal at the appellate court since 2008 but the case had
not been assigned to anybody.
A source at the EFCC stated,
“We went to see two Presidents of the Court of Appeal but they never showed
interest in the case. It has been eight years that we have been trying to
vacate that order to no avail.
“This kind of thing
demoralises detectives because evidence may have been compromised, victims or
witnesses would have moved on while some of the investigators may have been
transferred or retired.”
An EFCC prosecutor, Johnson
Ojogbene, told reporters recently that the EFCC had appealed the judgment,
adding that Odili’s case was presently hanging at the Court of Appeal, Port
Harcourt Division.
He stated that there was
the need for proper synergy between the judiciary and the anti-graft agencies
in the anti-corruption fight as there was noting the EFCC or anyone could do to
overturn the judgment of any court except to appeal.
Ojogbene noted that when
the judiciary failed to cooperate, cases could be stalled for ages.
Punch
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