Leadership (Abuja)
28 August 2008
Chairman of EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri, said yesterday in Abuja that she was not in support of plea bargain by corrupt politicians. Farida made this known yesterday while fielding questions from journalists at the office of the Director- General of NAFDAC, Prof. Dora Akunyili.
"It's a law l don't like, but l just must use it, because l met it in operation," she said. She said that some lawyers were consulting with her on why she must continue with the process.
"Some lawyers are trying to convince me that l can't afford to let a man that stole a trillion naira and have houses all over the world to go free "If you don't take this asset from this man, he may get away with it because the cases are taking so long that it might outlive the administration," she said.
She said without plea bargain, some cases might get to the Supreme Court and it might rule that all seized property should be forfeited to the Federal Government. "This would mean that the state or the people whose monies were stolen would be denied the privilege of getting back their money," she said.
"The man might still be enjoying his illegal money while others would be watching, believing that a criminal can go free," she said. Farida explained that the system was used in the advanced countries because they got frustrated by the slow legal process.
"They concluded that they don't want the criminals to get away with all that they have stolen," she said.
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