Efcc iBrandTVSome senior Nigerian lawyers have weighed-in on the recent altercation between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and a prominent United States of America .Senator, Charles Grassley, who is the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, expressing serious concerns at the exchanges of words in strong language between the EFCC and the U.S. Senator.

Senator Charles Grassley reportedly wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in which he called for the stoppage of the repatriation of all funds running into over $300 Million recovered from bank accounts said to be connected to Nigeria’s late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha.

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Senator’s accusation

According to the report, the 86-year-old Senator accused the EFCC and its Acting Chairman, Mr.Ibrahim Magu, as well as the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, of being biased against critics and political opponents of the incumbent administration of President Buhari in the fight against corruption and of being “agents of oppression.”

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Reaction from EFCC

The EFCC, in its response by its Acting Spokesperson, Mr.Tony Orilade, was quite robust and vehement in its defense, insisting in a statement by Mr.Orilade that there was no iota of bias in the Commission’s handling of criminal cases under Mr. Magu, particularly corruption cases, and that the anti-corruption battle being fought by the Commission has been “impartial, objective and non-discriminatory.”

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The Commission’s statement concluded by asserting that the U.S. Senator’s accusations failed to address the painstaking efforts of the Acting Chairman, Mr. Magu, in tackling corruption without fear or favour, cooperating with the U.S. in fighting cyber crimes, and in the transparent and accountable handling of recovered funds.

The Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, on his part, dismissed the U.S. Senator’s assertions as baseless.

Toning down tension

A senior lawyer, Mr. Martin Okpaleke, who is the proprietor of a Victoria Island, Lagos law firm, Gerald-Martin & Company, called for the de-escalation of the apparent tension by toning down of the rhetoric by both sides.

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While commending the U.S. Senator and the U.S. government for their consistent interest in the work of Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies, particularly the EFCC, Mr. Martin Okpaleke was of the view that the concerns raised in the U.S. Senator’s letter and the accusations contained in it are not sufficient grounds for the Senator or anybody to call for the money not to be returned to Nigeria through the normal processes and channels considering, according to him, that there is no dispute that the monies are Nigeria’s public funds that were unlawfully taken out of Nigeria  and unlawfully domiciled in bank  accounts within U.S. jurisdiction.

According to Mr. Okpaleke, it is important that attention should be on the totality of EFCC’s work in combating economic and specialized and sophisticated crimes and not be unfairly and narrowly focused on corruption cases involving  politically exposed persons.  He contended that any fair-minded person will score the Commission’s performance under Mr. Magu creditably well based on publicly available information about the Commission’s work.

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Negative perception of efforts

The senior lawyer expressed disappointment that EFCC’s work in combating crime appears to be suffering from what he described as “a mostly politically induced negative perception of the Commission’s efforts as being unfairly targeted at critics and political opponents of the incumbent administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.”

He contended that such perception is not borne out by the facts when one considers that politicians of the current ruling party as well as its supporters have been investigated and are still being investigated by the Commission over various alleged offences, with some already prosecuted and convictions obtained by the Commission from the courts while several others are currently being prosecuted.

Refocusing attention

He suggested that attention should be refocused by the public, including the U.S. Senator and the U.S. and other governments such as the U.K. government, and the European Union, E.U., to other areas of EFCC’s work of combating crimes such as money laundering, sophisticated frauds and financial crimes and cyber crimes, areas in which he said  the Commission has excelled and attained the highest global standards under Mr.Magu and is currently cooperating with the U.S.A. Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.

Okpaleke said that he felt that such model of cooperation between EFCC and the U.S.A. FBI should have been one of the areas of focus by the U.S. Senator and in respect of which he ought to encourage greater cooperation between the U.S. government and its agencies and the Nigerian government and its agencies.

He said that handling of corruption cases involving politicians by law enforcement agencies world-wide in partisan democratic environments tends to be inherently controversial, emotive and sensational and that it was never easy for law enforcement agencies to navigate such politically charged terrains without facing accusations of bias and partisanship from one or more sides.

He pointed out that EFCC does not deliver justice alone but necessarily works through and with the courts and cannot usurp the role of the courts in the criminal justice system and processes, thus making it imperative that those criticizing the Commission ought to be circumspect and mindful of the limits of the Commission’s powers and responsibilities in the wider scheme of criminal justice delivery.

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He also emphasized that the National Assembly has a role to play in bolstering the efforts of EFCC and he called for Mr.Magu’s name to be represented to the current Senate for confirmation and he urged the Senate to confirm his appointment immediately this is done.

In his view, the creditable performance of Mr.Magu in acting capacity in the last couple of years could be considered at the very least that  refusal by the last Senate to confirm his appointment is a very serious error on the part of that Senate.

However, he called on the EFCC which he felt had an excellent public relations unit to do more to change some of these negative perceptions of the Commission’s work and performance.

EFCC as agent of oppression

On the issue raised by Senator Grassley that the Commission and its Acting Chairman are  “agents of oppression”. Okpaleke condemned such characterization, contending that it is wrong personalizing such matters to the extent of defining and reducing the actions of a corporate law enforcement entity to the person of the leading member of its management no matter how tempting that might be.

But he called on the EFCC to be more open to plea bargains by suspects or defendants and to work more closely with the courts in appropriate cases,utilising the plea bargain innovation in the Administration of Criminal Justice Act,as amended.

He further suggested that the Commission should  also respect the informal classification of offences into what he said could be loosely termed as “process” or “administrative” crimes such as unwitting flouting of the KYC(Know Your Customer/Client) requirements of money laundering statutes by Defendants other than banks and financial and allied institutions where it is apparent that such Defendants inherently lack all the paraphernalia and wherewithal to consistently conduct the necessary due diligence in financial transactions, and “substantive” crimes such as obtaining money under false pretexts, money laundering,stealing,bank frauds,etc in which he contended that there are invariably actual victims unlike is the case with “process” or “administrative” type crimes in which he said there is usually only a nominal victim,usually the State.

He suggested that such approaches as he suggested would help negate or completely avoid any impression or perception that the Commission seeks the destruction and not just the punishment and reform of those it prosecutes.

Publicly available information and investigations by our reporters as well as our sources seem to support some of the observations of Mr.Okpaleke. Courts, particularly the Federal High Court, appear to have  generally tended to approve most plea bargain agreements entered into by the EFCC and defendants being prosecuted by it, with such defendants being convicted but sentenced to lesser punishment, suggesting that the “oppressive” tag foisted on the EFCC and its Acting Chairman by Senator Grassley may after all be ill-informed.

Submitting to plea bargain arrangement

Some courts have even recommended plea bargaining to both the Commission and defendants facing trial. Outside the terrain of plea bargains involving public officials or former public officials and politically exposed persons is the plea bargain arrangements in EFCC’s case against  Mr.Saeed Hammoud Hussain at the Federal High Court, Lagos, Nigeria.

The offence for which he was charged by the Commission in Suit No.FHC/L/CS/94A/2019 was a count of violation of KYC(Know Your Customer/Client) requirements of the Money Laundering (Prohibition)Act,2011(as amended) in the course of  monetary transaction with one of his customers.

This particular Defendant who had no prior criminal record and cooperated throughout with the Commission in its investigations succumbed to ill health in the course of his arrest, detention, and prosecution but eventually submitted to a plea bargain arrangement, pleaded guilty to the charge and was convicted by the court and was sentenced to a fine in a sum of money which involved a very substantial part of the money in the transaction, and to an undertaking to the Federal Government of Nigeria concerning future lawful conduct of his business and that of his companies.

Satisfying terms of court judgment

The terms of the court’s judgment in that example was subsequently satisfied by the Defendant with the payment of the fine and issuance of the guarantee, after which his lawyers applied to the Commission for the release of his international passport and other property seized by the court, all of which the Commission promptly released, enabling him to seek further medical attention.

That particular Defendant from all available information has since remained law-abiding and kept to the terms of the undertaking given, having experienced the sobering effect of being subjected to the criminal justice system and processes, while EFCC on its part has kept to the agreement reached with him by withdrawing against him the other charges arising from the same transaction before other judges of the Federal High Court. Honorable Justice Oguntoyingbo.

Contrary to the U.S.Senator’s generalised imputation of bad faith to EFCC’s efforts,the striking out of the other charges against Mr. Saeed Hammoud Hussain by the Federal High Court at the instance of the Commission due to the Defendant’s earlier conviction by another judge of the court  under the plea bargain speaks well of the Commission’s good faith and integrity under Mr.Magu.

Case of PDP leader

Another instance is the case of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, former spokesman, Chief Olisa Metu, who was prosecuted by EFCC before the Federal High Court, Abuja, and ultimately convicted and sentenced to custodial punishment. In the course of delivery of the judgment of the court, the Presiding Judge, Honorable Justice Abang, actually appeared to suggest that Chief Metu could have explored settlement (plea bargain) with the Commission and had opportunity of doing so but for his pride.

There have been many such plea bargain arrangements entered into by the Commission and defendants and the fact that such plea bargain arrangements were approved by the courts and result in convictions, punishment of the offenders even if to ostensibly lesser sentences, and often recovery of substantial sums of money for Nigeria’s treasury, along with fines,are testaments to the hard work and thoroughness of EFCC’s management, legal teams and investigators and these have no indications or suggestions of any “oppression” or “oppressive disposition” on the part of EFCC.

No irrefutable, specific facts

Barr. Kieran Gozie Enechi, Senior Partner, Index Law in Lagos also stated that the heavy allegation or accusation, credited to the elderly US Senator, is truly hot but, reckless. According to him, divested of real substance; it is in the category of random loud, hollow and unfortunate word- of- mouth de-marketing of a subject in the public eye; for reasons that may not be immediately apparent to an independent by-stander .

He opined that one would have expected such a ranking figure to come out with irrefutable specific facts that constituted the alleged “unfairness”, by the EFCC Chairman; complete with names, dates, places, figures and lucid description of incidents involved.

“In the absence of these, it would appear as if certain interests are targeting this most tested and untainted anti – corruption czar, in the Nation’s financial crimes fighting history. There multiplicities of evidence both in and outside the courts, that eloquently bear out the records of EFCC’ s resoluteness, inspite of some inefficiencies of its operating environment.”

Further, he said, it is alarming that the said US Senator, was cited to have recommended that his home government should detain, release of some loot, found to be the legitimate property of Nigeria; on account of his wide allegations against the EFCC Chairman and the honorable Attorney General of the Federation.

Under what rule of international law can such strange recommendation, be premised? Has the law guiding the courteous relations between Nations, slipped into the dreary logic of the fish – on account of loose stories with no relationship to clear records on ground?

ibrandtv.com

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