Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, stated on Thursday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, should not have existed.
Goldennewsng reports that he stated that the commission operates in violation of the Constitution at the moment.
This was said by Agbakoba at a Lagos news conference.
He claims that the EFCC does not have the authority to interfere with state governments’ operations because it was established by the National Assembly.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria insisted that Nigeria only had one police force under the 1999 Constitution, and he added that the anti-graft agency couldn’t do its job because it wasn’t a part of the police.
He added that Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution divided the powers of the government into two categories, and that the EFCC remained a federal institution established by the National Assembly: state and federal
He stated, ” Therefore, the question will be whether the EFCC can prosecute state crimes if established by the Federal Government.
The EFCC does not have the right to visit the state and examine their accounts if the Supreme Court has held in many of its decisions that federalism means two autonomous and independent governments.
Sections 46 of the EFCC Act and 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution can be read by anyone. When you read Section 46 now, you wonder if it complies with Section 36(12) because it does not. Section 36(12) requires that all offenses be defined.
“As a result, one of the prayers I will offer in court is that the EFCC ought not to exist in the first place because it is not a part of the police, and that the EFCC’s function is identical to that of the Police Special Fraud Unit.
“My other prayer will be whether the National Assembly, which is an arm of the Federal Government, can make laws for the federation and to what extent it can authorize a federal agency to exercise powers as if it were a state agency.
Because of the constitution’s flaws, “so all these contradictions should make the presidential candidates tell the Nigerian people what they are going to do about the constitution.”
