Posted by 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.
According to him, the commission now violates the Constitution.
This was stated by Agbakoba at a news conference in Lagos.
He asserts that because the EFCC is a National Assembly establishment, it lacks the authority to impede state government operations.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria claimed that only one police force was established for Nigeria under the 1999 Constitution, and that the anti-graft agency was unable to carry out its duties since it was not a division of the police.
He emphasized that the EFCC was still a federal organization founded by the National Assembly and said that Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution split the powers of the government into two: federal and state.
So, he asked: “Can the EFCC prosecute state offenses if it was established by the federal government?
“The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that federalism entails two autonomous and separate governments, and if this is true, the EFCC lacks the authority to visit the state and look into its financial records.
“Anyone can read Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 46 of the EFCC Act. When reading Section 46, you may wonder if it complies with Section 36(12), which mandates that all offenses be defined, because it does not.
Therefore, one of the requests I will make in court is that the EFCC should not even exist since it is not a division of the police and that the work carried out by the EFCC is also done by the Police Special Fraud Unit.
“My other prayer will be whether the National Assembly can make laws for the federation and to what extent can the National Assembly which is an arm of the Federal Government make laws authorising a federal agency to exercise powers as if it were a state agency.
The presidential contenders should therefore explain to Nigerians what they intend to do to fix the constitution in light of all these inconsistencies.