EFCC and unending trial of ex-governors

[Mirror]

Seven years into the trial of ex-governors, the cases are still stalled at various court stages, with some not going beyond mere plea taking. In this report, Olufemi Adeosun examines these cases and their implications for the 2015 general election.

Not a few Nigerians were stunned in 2006 when the pioneering Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu opened the can of worms on the deepening level of corruption among some state governors before the Senate.

In the damning report, the ex-EFCC boss announced that he had established cases of corruption against 15 serving governors. Even though some analysts regarded the outburst as a smear campaign against some chief executive officers of states, the sordid details, nonetheless opened a new fiesta in the country's fight against official graft as some suspects who hitherto, had lost their immunity, were arrested and charged to court.

The roll-call of ex-governors who were arrested and arraigned in court during Ribadu era and whose cases are currently being stalled in various stages in the court, include Orji Kalu (Abia), Boni Haruna(Adamawa), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti) Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu), SaminuTuraki, (Jigawa),Adamu Abdullahi(Nasarawa), Jolly Nyame (Taraba), Attahiru Bafarawa(Sokoto), Joshua Dariye (Plateau), and Rasheed Ladoja (Oyo), Alao Akala (Oyo) Gbenga Daniel(Ogun) and Danjuma Goje (Gombe), Dr. Peter Odili (Rivers) and James Ibori (Delta).

While Nyame is standing trial at the Federal High Court Abuja on a 41-count charge for criminal breach of trust and mismanagement of over N1.3bn, Kalu is battling with corruption charges in a N5.6bn suit at the same court, Haruna and Fayose are standing trial for allegedly stealing N200m and N1.2bn at the Federal High Court Yola and Federal High court, Ado Ekiti respectively.

Other ex-governors enmeshed in endless court cases also include, Nnamani who is standing trial for embezzlement of N5.3bn at the Federal High Court Lagos, Turaki(Federal High Court Dutse) for N36bn, Bafarawa( Federal High Court, Sokoto) for N15bn, Abdullahi(Federal High Court, Lafia) for N15bn and Ladoja(Federal High Court, Lagos) for N6bn.

The list also includes Daniel, N58bn fraud at the (Ogun State High Court,) Akala N11.5bn at the (State High Court, Ibadan), Goje N52bn at the (Gombe State High Court), and Odili N100bn at the (State High Court, Rivers) . From Ribadu to Mrs Farida Waziri, and to the present handler of the anti-graft agency, Ibrahim Larmode, seven years down the line, the cases are at present being stalled in various stages in the courts allegedly due to legal rigmarole and shoddy work by the investigating agency.

Even though some of his lackeys have relentlessly argued that Lamorde has evolved new strategies to give accelerated pace to the ongoing litigation involving some high profile cases, including the obfuscating trial of these ex-governors, there is virtually nothing to show in practical terms, that the cases are making any head-way.

Out of the pack, the only two governors who had had a date with justice are Lucky Igbinedion of Edo State whose case was settled under the plea bargaining system and was asked to forfeit a paltry sum of N3.5million out of the over N2.9bn he stole from the coffer of the state he ruled for two terms of eight years and DSP Alamisyeseigha who was outrightly tried and convicted.

Perhaps the most dramatic of the court cases are the ones involving Odili and Ibori. While the former had since 2008 secured perpetual injunction against any form of arrest, investigation or prosecution, the latter was in December 17, 2009 cleared of all financial misconducts by a Federal High Court, Asaba. Ironically, Ibori was later tried on a similar offence by a Crown Court in London, found guilty and subsequently jailed.

However, 5 years after Odili obtained the widely condemned immunity against arrest, the anti-graft body has not made any head way in its efforts to vacate the order at the Court of Appeal.

It is however paradoxical that, while the one time self acclaimed governor-general of the Ijaw nation has since got presidential pardon and allegedly eyeing a seat at the Senate come 2015, some other whose cases are pending in courts are also jostling for one political slot or another in the next political dispensation. Ribadu had in an interview in the special Anniversary 2013 edition of Zero Tolerance, a publication of the EFCC, voiced out his frustration on the protracted court cases against the governors. Responding to question on Ibori acquittal by the Nigerian court, he said "How many people have been cleared by our judiciary? A judge even said that one man should not even be taken to court. So, there are many Nigerians getting away with the help of the judiciary.

The judiciary is also part of the challenge. Not to say that all judges are bad, no. "There are Judges that got a lot of them convicted, even in the case of Ibori, a Federal High Court Judge sent him to prison and kept him there for two and a half months. He was a Judge that exhibited unbelievable honesty, integrity, competence and knowledge of the law. He is also a Nigeria, let's celebrate him and forget the other Judge that gave our country a bad name."

Also on the endless nature of court cases, former Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Lagos State, Professor Yemi Osibanjo in the same magazine edition, stated that no institution can work without certain measure of political will, adding that, " The Nigerian Judiciary has very many good people, the problem is finding the political will within"

On the way forward, he had said, "In my view, what is required is for the Federal Attorney General to sit down with the President of the Senate and the President of this nation and the Chief Justice of Nigeria and work out a system that is able to prosecute cases from beginning to end, within a certain time, to put in place the rules and regulation that will make it work."

In his own submission on the matter, the Executive Secretary, Anti-Corruption Network, Otunba Dino Melaye, posited that there would never be decisive fight against corruption until the country's Constitution and the extant laws are amended. For instance, he stated that that as long as the President would be the one to nominate the chainman of Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) and Code of Conduct Bureau , the fight against corruption would continue to be a mirage.

For the country to make head away in the fight against official graft, according to the ex-lawmaker, the appointment of chairmen to these anti graft agencies should be recommended by the National Judicial Council, (NJC) through the Council of state for ratification.

He said, "Except that is done, we will be boxing the wind in the fight against corruption because the chief executives of the anti-graft agencies will operate those agencies as parastatals of the PDP and the Presidency. And the donors to presidential fund raising dinners, who apparently are the oil thieves and many other criminals, will escape prosecution and judgment because they are sponsors of the President. Melaye added, "Because of political patronage and the insatiable quest for power by the Presidency, they use EFCC as a tool of political negotiations with the ex-governors and many others.

For instance, I submitted a petition against former governor of Kogi State, Ibrahim Idris, but almost two years after; the case has not been filed in court. With all the evidences given, and the additional discovery by the commission, Presidential intervention has stalled the matter.

When asked if also the President could also be responsible for slow pace of the cases in court, he also fired back, "The truth of the matter is that you cannot give what you don't have and the fish gets rotten from the head. Once the leadership of the country will indoctrinate themselves with the fear of God and run governance with every sincerity of purpose of heart and commitment, every other person, including the Judiciary will fall in line.

"It is the corruption in the presidency that has been contagious and now permeating into every other facet of our national lives. Since the inception of this government, not one politically exposed person has been successfully prosecuted and jailed. Corruption is now with impunity. With this type of "Bole kaja" leadership, we cannot have an effective anti-graft agency. When we will have the right leadership, the fight against corruption, will become meaningful."