Nigeria: EFCC Receives Reports on El-Rufai, Imoke
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Leadership (Abuja)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Iyobosa Uwugiaren
Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has received the report of both the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the House of Representatives Committee on Power Sector.
Although it was not certain who submitted the two reports to the anti-graft commission last night, a source told LEADERSHIP that the reports recommended prosecution of the former Minister of FCT, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, and the recently sacked Governor of Cross Rivers State, Senator Liyel Imoke, over "clear financial crimes."
LEADERSHIP had exclusively reported on Monday a move to prosecute Imoke over his involvement in the $16 billion power sector scam.
Our reporter gathered yesterday that the Hon. Ndudi Elumelu-led House investigative committee on power sector could not present its report to the House yesterday as expected over what a member of the House described as "suffocating on the leadership of the House from unexpected quarters."
But a member of the House Committee said, "Whether the forces succeeded in killing the report or not some persons will be prosecuted for their involvement in the power sector scam."
The Senate Committee on FCT recently submitted its report to the Senate and among others recommended the prosecution of el-Rufai over his alleged involvement in financial crimes running into billions of naira.
Although a source at the EFCC told our reporter last night that the commission is working on the two reports, LEADERSHIP gathered that the commission is facing serious challenge relating to inadequate operation staff.
Most operatives, police officers attached to the commission, were recently redeployed by the Police Force headquarters.
However, apparently in order to strengthen its legal team, the EFCC said yesterday that it has concluded plans to enlist the services of four Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to join its prosecution team.
A statement by the Commission's Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Babafemi, yesterday disclosed that the Senior Advocates will join the commission's present team of external and internal solicitors to strengthen its prosecution team."
The latest move by the Commission is part of on-going efforts by its Executive Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri, to inject vigour into the activities of the Commission, especially in the areas of intelligence gathering, investigation and prosecution.
"The bid to enlist the services of the Senior Advocates is also in tandem with Mrs Waziri's belief that the end result of criminal prosecution is conviction and, as such, no effort should be spared in the diligent prosecution of the Commission's cases in the interest of justice and for the overall benefit of Nigeria."
It also urged Nigerians to complement the efforts of the anti-graft agency in its renewed bid to rid the nation of all forms of economic and financial crimes by exposing all corrupt tendencies around them.
Meanwhile, Mrs Farida Waziri yesterday condemned the practice of dragging suspects to court in chains, saying it was not her mode of operation.
Speaking with State House correspondents in Abuja, Waziri said the commission, under her leadership, would not chain suspects being prosecuted by it.
"The problem is some of you want a situation where you see people in handcuffs and leg chains in court but I am not operating like that.
"I have to do a meticulous job and be certain that I have a prima facie case before I take anyone to court.
"Majority of Nigerians, especially the less educated ones, want to see every day on television where big men are taken in leg chains and handcuffs but I am being proactive.
"I am doing the preventive and I am setting strategies in place so that I will prevent this,'' she said, adding that treating suspects in such a manner would not add anything to the common man.
"If I prevent the looting, I think it will be better,'' Waziri said, adding that such money could be used in President Umaru Yar'Adua's seven-point agenda, which included wealth creation.
"If we allow people to take money outside the country, then you begin to chase after that money and those other countries have their rules and they may not want to cooperate; the harm has been done,'' she said.
On whether she planned to probe her predecessor in office, Mr Nuhu Ribadu, she retorted: "I am not probing anyone.
"I am there to do some job and I am trying to set up the foundation to work the way I want, and I am not there to probe Ribadu.''
The chairman also said that she was not dismantling structures set up by Ribadu in the EFCC and denied that advance fee fraud, otherwise known as 419, was creeping back in the system.
She condemned people who owned houses in different cities of the world, saying that such people were kleptomaniacs and needed psychiatric intervention.
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