EFCC, ICPC, others to merge - Aondoakaa

Idowu Samuel and Bola Badmus - 14.12.2007

The Federal Government with support from the National Assembly is set to merge the anti-corruption agencies for the purpose of guaranteeing independence of operations as well as preventing abuse of their powers.

The House of Representatives and the Ministry of Justice gave the indication on Thursday during the inauguration of the House Committee on Justice.

The House had complained about the multiplicity of anti-corruption agencies with duplication of their functions and vowed to stimulate debate aimed at streamlining their operations.

The Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), who attended the inauguration ceremony, concurred with the position of the House, explaining that his office believed that the functions of the anti-corruption agencies were overlapping and hence should be streamlined.

He said he had tried to intervene when an agency strayed into the territory of another or when all the agencies get involved in the investigation of a particular case.

Aondoakaa cited the cases of Ebonyi State government and that of the former governor of Bayelsa State in which he said all the anti-corruption agencies were investigating at the same time.

“The functions of the agencies”, said Aondoakaa, “are overlapping. We have a petition from Ebonyi State where they are complaining that two agencies are investigating the activities of the state government. The petition was written by the Attorney General of Ebonyi State and addressed to the president while a copy was sent to me.

“The ICPC has started investigating the case which the EFCC was already investigating. So I had to forward the petition to both the EFCC and the ICPC, asking them to sort out themselves on the case.

“Secondly, the EFCC had already prosecuted Alamieyeseigha and got him convicted. His property were confiscated. The same Alamieyeseigha is facing similar charges before the Code of Conduct Bureau and the law says that you cannot prosecute or convict somebody on the same offence.”

The Attorney General during the ceremony urged the National Assembly to begin to deploy their constitutional power in issuing warrant of arrest to stubborn government officials that he said were fond of not heeding summons.

He said by its right of oversight the National Assembly had the right to summon any government official on specific issues, adding that no official of government had the right not to heed the summon.

The Speaker of the House, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, thanked the Attorney General for his suggestion on the warrant of arrest for government officials, indicating that the House would not fail to issue such warrant when necessary.

Aondoakaa pleaded with the House of Representatives to help facilitate the offsetting of debt running to N8 billion which he described as judgment debt incurred by different ministries.

In his remarks the Chairman of the Committee on Justice, Honourable Henry Seriake Dickson threw support behind the Attorney General on his clamour for recognition of its supervisory role over the anti-corruption agencies, stressing that the Nigerian constitution recognises the Attorney General as the Chief Law Officer of the federation and hence could exercise control over the agencies.

He said, “By virtue of section 174 of the 1999 constitution, the EFCC and the ICPC Act, the Attorney General of the federation as the Chief Law Officer can exercise supervisory jurisdiction over all law enforcement agencies of the government in the area of prosecution.