Skip to main content

Court rules ICPC, EFCC can investigate person, authority in Nigeria for corruption

A Federal High Court sitting in Sokoto State, has affirmed that both the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are legally mandated to investigate and prosecute any person or authority over allegations of corruption anywhere in Nigeria.

                     Court rules ICPC, EFCC can investigate person, authority in Nigeria for corruption
Justice S. K. Idris, who gave the ruling in a suit filed by the Sokoto State government, seeking to restrict ICPC and EFCC from inviting, investigating, arresting or prosecuting any official of the state government on allegations of corruption, dismissed the claim, noting that the two anti-corruption agencies had been so empowered by an Act of Parliament to perform the duties of fighting corruption in all the 36 states of the federation.

The Sokoto State government had approached the court through the Attorney General of the State, Suleiman Usman, asking for a declaration and injunction that would stop ICPC and EFCC from carrying out any anti-corruption duties on any official or government department of the state on any matter or issue which the State House of Assembly can legislate on.

The suit specifically seeks to restrict ICPC and EFCC from looking into the financial activities of the state government between 2008 and 2015 on the grounds that the period under investigation were covered by the appropriation act of the Sokoto State House of Assembly.

The trial judge while dismissing the matter said that tagging the activities of ICPC and EFCC as regards the application of government funds in the state, in the period leading to the 2015 general elections, as political intimidation cannot hold because there was no fact from the state government to support the claim.

Justice Idris further observed that the state government also failed to file an amendment or further affidavit to show any further acts of the alleged political witch-hunt by either ICPC or EFCC since after the 2015 elections.

The judge, while concluding on the matter, held that the Federal High Court was bound by the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in AG Ondo v AG Federation (2002) which upheld the constitutionality of both the ICPC and EFCC Acts as enacted by the National Assembly, being applicable and binding on every state, person and authority in Nigeria, including Sokoto state.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

136 new cases of Coronavirus recorded in Nigeria

  136 new cases of Coronavirus were recorded in Nigeria on Saturday September 26, as confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).    A breakdown of the new cases across states is as follows; Lagos-41, Ogun-27, Rivers-19, Abia-10, Oyo-6, Plateau-6, Bauchi-5, Ondo-5, Ekiti-4, Kaduna-4, Edo-3, Ebonyi-2, Bayelsa-1, Delta-1, Osun-1, Yobe-1.    There are now 58,198 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the country and 1,106 deaths have been recorded. 49,722 patients who recovered from the disease have also been discharged.     
Post a Comment
Read more

Suspected cultists storm bar in Delta state and kill Polytechnic graduate

             A Mass Communication graduate of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku was shot dead by suspected cultists on Thursday, August 13.   According to reports, the deceased identified as Oboh, was watching a match at a bar at Umuagu Quarters in Asaba, the state capital, when the gunmen stormed the place, went directly to where he was seated and shot him dead at close range.   "Oboh only came to watch a football match in the bar and he was drinking around 10:00pm when three gunmen came into bar and shot him four times and dragged his lifeless body outside the place. The gunmen put off the generator set and told everyone to remain calm that they came for Oboh alone," an eyewitness said   In a related development, a middle-aged man was said to have been shot dead in what looked like a reprisal on Isieke Quarters in the early hours of Friday August 14  in Asaba.   Confirming both incidents, the spokesperson for the police in Delta, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, said the com
Post a Comment
Read more

Female journalist shot dead while covering a riot in Londonderry, Ireland

A female journalist has been shot dead while covering a riot in Londonderry, Ireland. Lyra McKee, 29, is believed to have been hit by a stray bullet after a gunman opened fire indiscriminately at around 11pm. Shortly before she was killed, Ms McKee, who was covering the riots, had posted an image from the scene of the riots on Twitter. She captioned it: "Derry tonight. Absolute madness." Shocking footage posted to social media shows a gunman in a mask taking cover near the rioters before firing two shots. Seconds later screams are heard coming from the other end of the road. Police revealed this morning that it believes the New IRA was "most likely" behind McKee's killing, calling Ms McKee a "completely innocent bystander. " Assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton described the killing as "not only a murder of a young woman, it is an attack again on the people of this city." Friends who are mourning McKee de
Post a Comment
Read more