Posted by By ADESINA AIYEKOTI, Port Harcourt on
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Mr Lanke Odogiyan, has stirred the hornet's nest as lawyers distanced themselves from his call, on Monday, for the sack of the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Mr Lanke Odogiyan, has stirred the hornet's nest as lawyers distanced themselves from his call, on Monday, for the sack of the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
Odogiyan had, at the opening of the on-going NBA delegates conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, accused the anti-graft agency of gross human rights violations and disrespect for court orders.
However, many of his colleagues, led by Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) on Tuesday condemned the attacks on the commission, describing the allegations as spurious, unwarranted, self-serving and capable of undermining the war against corruption, which had been the bane of national development.
Chief Fawehinmi said he may be forced to review his relationship with the NBA over the matter.
Also condemning Odogiyan's outburst, Hajia Bilikisu Umaru, a delegate from Gombe at the on-going NBA conference said the fact that the agency arrested and was currently prosecuting a member of the Bar was not enough grounds to condemn Ribadu. She was apparently referring to the arrest and trial of Ricky Tarfa (SAN).
In his own view, Mr Biodun Owonikoko, a Lagos-based lawyer, said the Bar should look at the laws empowering the EFCC rather than the man Ribadu.
"I think it is a call that has to be reviewed with a question, because there are people with less than genuine complaints against EFCC and its operatives. Such people can sit upon the call to wage selfish war against EFCC. That would not augur well for the need to drive the fight against corruption and financial crimes in our society. The agency is still young," he noted.
Also, a Kaduna-based lawyer, Olu Ibitoye, said: "I don't think it is the view of the Bar, when was that decision taken?"
Barrister M. Galaya, however, said that anyone, like Ribadu and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who disobeyed court orders was not fit to hold any public office.
Lanre Oyetunji, said Ribadu had been doing a good job by sanitising the economic environment though he at times dances to the tunes of his master.
Friday Okon described the NBA's president's statement as unfortunate, adding: "Nigeria is an unusual state, so it needs unusual statements."
Chief Fawehinmi, in an eight-page reaction, dissected Odogiyan's statement, with copious analysis and legal citations, describing it as "most irresponsible, grossly thoughtless, obviously unreasonable and undoubtedly lacking in legal and factual substance.
Below is the full text of Fawehinmi's statement, entitled: "Attacks by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC): The attacks Are Wrong and I condemn them."
"The attacks unleashed against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Lanke Odogiyan, at the opening of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference in Port Harcourt on Monday, August 28, 2006 is to say the least most irresponsible, grossly thoughtless, obviously unreasonable and undoubtedly lacking in legal and factual substance.
"The senseless attacks ought to be condemned by lawyers and non-lawyers who are happy and satisfied with the nationally and internationally acclaimed successes and constitutionally and legally authorised practices of the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) and its dynamic leadership in its unrelenting and effective fight against corruption in our country.
"The Financial and Economic Crimes Commission (EFCC) has moved against the rich and the powerful, the influential and the well-connected, the highly placed, the 419 crooks, the money launderers who control the governmental purse of the people, the suspected professionals, including lawyers, in their (EFCC) determined efforts to rid Nigeria of corrupt practices in the governance of our country.
"The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) accused EFCC of detaining people for weeks and months without being charged to court. I challenge him to list all those who are victims of this unwarranted accusation.
"He chided the EFCC for disobeying court orders. I challenge him to list the court orders with all their particulars.
"He rebuked the EFCC for using Gestapo method. I urge him to give details of the Gestapo tactics he accused the EFCC of if he understands the connotation and denotation of Gestapo. Unless the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) does these and soonest, I consider his attacks as gaseous effusions of a professional with a "tail coat" mentality who still clings to a Victorian age professional disposition of protecting the upper crust with doubtful credentials.
"It appears that the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has neither properly read and digested the 48 sections of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act No. 1 of 2004 nor does he understand the import of each of those sections.
"The EFCC Act empowers the EFCC to arrest anyone suspected of economic crimes, investigate the crime, subject the suspect to a declaration of his assets while the investigation is on (see sections 13 and 27).
"The law allows the Chairman of the EFCC to apply ex-parte to the High Court for an interim seizure of the assets of the suspect (see section 29).
"In the course of the investigation, the law permits the EFCC to freeze the account of the suspect in the bank through an ex-parte order of the High Court (see sections 29 (a) and (b); 34 (1).
"What pains some lawyers most is that they cannot frustrate the effectiveness of the EFCC by seeking an order to stay proceedings in the High Court while interlocutory appeals are filed with sole purpose of delaying justice in the matter pending before that High Court against the person accused of economic crimes (see section 40).
"Above are some of the areas which some lawyers hold against the EFCC, but lawyers are to obey the laws of the land and not to crucify the EFCC and its leadership for using the laws of the land to achieve the result desired by those laws.
"Recent events must have informed the unusual outburst of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA): The arrest of the son of the former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, Mr Mohammed Babangida over the Globacom shares; the arrest of Mike Adenuga and the search of his offices and the arrest of Barrister Ricky Tarfa, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the search of his office and his arraignment before a High Court. All these must have irked the President of the Nigerian Bar Association and a few who belong to his school of thought.
"The moves against the above mentioned "prominent" men were clearly within the laws of Nigeria - the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act No. 1 of 2004.
"The irony of it all is that lawyers parrot the maxim "nobody should be above the law" but in practice some lawyers want to place some people above the laws of the land. We will resist it.
"It appears that the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and his few supporters have deliberately forgotten or refused to acknowledge the professional injunction handed down by the first indigenous lawyer in Nigeria, Alexander Sapara Williams who was born on July 19, 1855, enrolled on January 30, 1888 and died on March 15, 1915.
"He said: "the legal practitioner lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country."
"The attack of the Nigerian Bar Association President is a misdirection of the people of Nigeria and a retrogression of the cause of the country.
"The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) were established to fight corruption which has been the bane of our society and its development.
"Corruption has made the poor to become poorer and the doubtful rich to become richer. No security of life and no welfare of the people can ever be attained in an environment of corruption which is extremely rife and pervasive in our society today; hence, the provision of Section 15 (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990 which states that: "the state shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power."
"The establishment of these institutions has got the blessing of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in an epochal judgment of the Attorney-General of Ondo State v. Attorney-General of the Federation reported in (2002) 9 Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (Part 772) page 222, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the establishment of any institution to fight against corruption and in the words of that court, Uwais, CJN at page 306 para B said: "Corruption is not a disease which afflicts public officers alone but society as a whole. If it is therefore to be eradicated effectively, the solution to it must be pervasive to cover every segment of the society."
"Hon. Justice Uwaifo at page 388, para E stated: against corruption in view of the shape it has taken and the international pressure for meaningful action can have the desired result. I am in total agreement with him."
"EFCC has done so much within three years of its establishment to sanitise our polity and to give effect to the constitution of Nigeria and the judgment of the Supreme Court in its unparalleled crusade against corruption. In the history of the fight against corruption in Nigeria no other institution has done so much as the EFCC.
"Of course, no human organisation is ever perfect. Even in its imperfection as a human body the EFCC is still the best hope for fighting corruption in Nigeria and its chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, is still the best crusader against corruption in the country today. Even in his unsubstantiated tirades against the EFCC, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Lanke Odogiyan, has not accused Ribadu of a single act of corruption.
"Let the Nigerian lawyers bear in mind that service to society and to the nation is of paramount importance than the interests of clients, friends, relatives and colleagues. If we aid corruption in the society we will be doing great disservice to our profession.
"It is in this light that the attacks of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) against the EFCC should unreservedly be roundly condemned and I hereby do so."
Also on Tuesday, the EFCC reacted to the controversy in a statement titled Re: Remove Nuhu Ribadu. Excerpts below:
"The attention of the EFCC has been drawn to widely published opinion of Mr. Lanke Odogiyan, outgoing President of the Nigerian Bar Association, in which he called for the removal of Nuhu Ribadu, Executive Chairman of EFCC, among other wide claims about the Commission. This is the same Odogiyan, whose NBA gave Ribadu an award about two months ago.
"The outgoing Bar president's grouse is easy to understand. The EFCC has been very active asking hard questions of those who have ruined -and are ruining-Nigeria, amongst who we can now count some prominent lawyers. The ‘fear' of EFCC we think, is also because of the new money laundering law, which imposes a huge burden on lawyers to ask questions of their clients, not just take their money and help cover their tracks. Fraudulent lawyers are not comfortable with this.
"There is nothing wrong in the NBA showing solidarity with members who are facing one challenge or the other but it is dangerous for such solidarity to be extended to members whose conduct desecrates the nobility of the profession. When members of the bar instead of being priests in the temple of justice become criminal accomplices of fraudsters or plain crooks, the bar must have the courage and the voice to condemn such members.
"The EFCC is disturbed by the increasing involvement of members of the bar in financial scams. At the last count at least 27 lawyers, including a couple of senior advocates were either being prosecuted or serving jail terms for financial scams. Under the law, EFCC is obliged to report all cases of ethical misconduct to the disciplinary committee of the NBA for action and the Commission has done so on a number of occasions. Indeed, reports have been lodged not only with the NBA, but also with other professional associations. Why is it that Odogiyan is complaining when he is asked to check on the conduct of his own members?
"EFCC challenges the out-going President of the NBA to make public the list of wayward lawyers, those who go about bribing or collecting bribes on people's behalf and engaging in other practices antithetical to the profession, who he ensured were appropriately disciplined in the period he held sway at the NBA.
"Odogiyan says EFCC has a penchant for disobeying court orders and is selective in the prosecution of the war on corruption. Rather than vacuous statements that mock the intellect, we challenge the otherwise learned President of the Nigerian Bar Association to place before the public, the names and particulars of court orders that EFCC has disobeyed. Where the Commission had been ruled against in certain cases of fraud, it had appealed. That is the normal course of action open to people and organisations that profess protection of the Rule of Law.
"The Commission can say without fear of contradiction that there is NOBODY in EFCC's detention in defiance of valid court orders, nor does EFCC engage in selective prosecution of the war on corruption. If there is any doubt in this regard, the normal and expected course of action is for Odogiyan and indeed, any other Nigerian to seek refuge in the courts which are there for us all. Could it be that Odogiyan is unaware that since the inception of the Commission, there have been numerous challenges as to the constitutionality of some actions, even legality of the Commission? One would expect that a lawyer who genuinely believes the EFCC has abused court processes will resort to court processes to correct the situation and not resort to platform politics declaring that the President removes public officers. How much respect in due process does this Odogiyan have in truth?
"Let it be known that EFCC will not be blackmailed or cowed by such discredited tactics Odogiyan is employing."