I consider it very necessary to open up this piece with the last ‘shot’ of the House of Representatives targeted at the former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the statement credited to him at a public lecture where he alluded to the corruption allegations leveled against members of the National Assembly. Without mincing word, the House routed for the ‘offensive path’ to exonerate itself from the scandal. Howbeit, never shy away from letting the public know the genesis of it all. The statement in itself should serve as a working tool for the anti-graft agencies. However, I agree with the submission of the House spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas, that the budgets of many agencies of the Executive arm are indeed higher than the current budget of the National Assembly that is an arm of government. At least, one of the agencies generated about a trillion naira last year, only remitted over a billion naira to the Consolidated Revenue Fund account. But the questions are: What incapacitated the National Assembly from carrying out its statutory responsibility of ‘oversight’ on all these agencies? Why is it difficult for the Legislature and Judiciary to make public their audited accounts and scared of being accountable and transparent for
the tax payers to assess them vis-a-vis service delivery?
That leads me to the ongoing investigative public hearing on the recent arrest of some Judges by the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS), as initiated by the House. While giving insight into the allegation leveled against him, Justice Abdullahi Liman of Federal High Court, River who testified before the committee state on
Wednesday, denied report on the $2 million allegedly taken away from his residence adding that at no point was his residence on No. 33 invaded by the DSS operatives.
From all top management team of various security agencies that testified before the Garba Datti-led Ad-hoc Committee, all the security agencies at one time or the other are inclined to carry out ‘sting operations’, to achieve a set objective. These were the words of Jonson Ojogbane, prosecutor and assistant director in the Economic and Financial, Crimes Commission (EFCC) who represented the chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.
While responding to other questions on the efforts carried out so far by the Commission which was saddled with the responsibility of economic and financial crimes, the EFCC chairman, affirmed that some of the judges who were recently arrested and detained by DSS. But he did not mention those being investigated. He also confirmed that the
Commission has statutory powers to investigate and prosecute all financial and economic crimes and any form of fraud, narcotic drug and trafficking, money laundering, embezzlement, bribery, looting and any form of corrupt malpractices, illegal arms deal, smuggling, human trafficking, child labour, illegal oil bunkering and illegal mining, tax evasion, foreign exchange malpractices, including counterfeiting of currency, theft of intellectual properties and piracy, open market abuse, dumping of toxic waste and prohibited goods. On his part, Sam Saba, Chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), disclosed that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice had earlier in the year demanded for the Asset Declaration Forms of all the Judges prior to the alleged invasion of the residences of some judges. He added that the exercise was a continuous one as similar request was made a fortnight ago. Saba maintained that the Bureau is not obligation to inform any judicial officer of arrest and prosecution of Judges under investigation. Saba who noted that the Bureau has power over criminal offence committed by Judicial personnel, observed that the CCB Act and paragraph 5 of the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, provides that Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justices of the Supreme Court, President and Justices of the Court of Appeal, all other Judicial officers and all staff of Court of law, as persons who are subjects to the code of conduct.”
According to him, seventh schedule to the 1999 Constitution also shows that judicial oath where judicial officers amongst other things, swear to abide by the code of conduct contained in the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution. “In response to whether the Bureau has jurisdiction over criminal offences committed by Judicial personnel, the answer must be in affirmative as the Court of Appeal has held in trust case of the Federal Republic of Nigeria vs Atiku Abubakar that proceedings before the Code of Conduct Tribunal are criminal in nature. “After a careful perusal of the powers of the National Judicial Council as provided for in paragraph 21 of the Third Schedule, it us observed that there is no provision that requires the Bureau to first of all refer matters of breaches of the code of conduct for public officers by Judicial officers first as a precondition before investigation and or
prosecution,” the CCB chairman told the committee.
But in his submission, Governor Nyesson Wike of River State who was represented by the Attorney General of the State and Commissioner for Justice who earlier claimed not to be “in a position to state the circumstances surrounding the attempt by the SSS to arrest Judges of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt as his Excellency is not seized of the facts. His Excellency cannot also state whether it is one judge or two or more judges that the SSS sought to arrest. The Governor was only informed, as the Chief security officer of the State, that the residence of the Federal High Court Judges who reside along Forces Avenue Old GRA Port Harcourt were being besieged by unknown armed men very late in the night on October 7, 2016. The siege eventually lasted until early hours of October 8, 2016.”
He however, noted that the Governor who was taken aback by the presence of so many SSS operatives and queried the propriety of invading the Judges’ residences at such an unholy hour. His submission was contained in the 11 page presentation, where he argued that the exercise carried out by the DSS was “outside the duties of the SSS to dabble into the traditional roles of the Police Force in the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime, and the maintenance of law and order, where such crime or acts do not threaten the internal security of the nation.” For me, we should look at the issues of national interest rather than individuals concerned.
Kehinde Akintola
