Olisa Agbakoba, former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (SAN), believes it’s time for the National Assembly to address the unconstitutionality of the EFCC and review its validity.
Agbakoba thinks the National Assembly messed up by passing the EFCC Act in just two days. They went beyond their authority given by the constitution.
Agbakoba had sent a letter to the National Assembly saying he thinks the EFCC is illegal and was set up without following the constitution.
“The reason I went to the National Assembly is to say to them- you created this institution, so maybe it’s time you reviewed whether what you created is valid,”
While acknowledging corruption as a significant problem, he stressed the importance of scrutinizing the EFCC’s role and legal position. If corruption is considered important, why isn’t it subject to justice?
He said…
“But through mechanisms of interpretation, the Supreme Court has held that the EFCC, in the particular cases filed, could do what they did.
The Supreme Court castigated the EFCC for being a totally irresponsible organisation going far outside the scope of its authority- becoming the police, becoming the SFU, becoming the MFU, becoming everything. So, that’s what they cannot do.
“The other fallacy that I think needs to be debunked is that the national assembly can exercise power to do anything it likes. No, it can’t.
The National Assembly’s power is constrained by the exclusive list and the concurrent list.
So, the big question here is whether the National Assembly can, mainly because it’s the National Assembly, create any monster. It can’t. It’s limited to the powers bestowed on it by the constitution.”
According to Agbakoba, the National Assembly went beyond its powers in creating the EFCC.
“The EFCC Act is the fastest legislation ever passed in Nigeria, in two days. I suspect very strongly that in the course of passing this legislation so fast, a lot of mistakes were made, and one of the mistakes is that the National Assembly exceeded its authority under section 4 of the constitution which imbues it with legislative powers.
It exceeded its authorities by several ways. Anyone who reads the Act will actually think that the EFCC is the Nigerian Police Force, because that’s what it does.
So, the one point that could be made is could we have two police forces when the EFCC describes itself in the Act as a police force. But we know that there’s only one police force in Nigeria, and that is the Nigerian Police Force.”
Agbakoba voiced concerns about the EFCC’s effectiveness in tackling corruption. Just to be clear, he said he hhas no problem with the EFCC gentlemen.
He continued…
“If we say put aside the constitution and look at what the EFCC has done and say, well, maybe we can give them a pass mark. I’m not going to give them any damn pass mark.
These guys are terrorists. In my view, they terrorise us. They use their might in that their red coat to terrorise us. Once you say EFCC, you’re scared, that is not what a law enforcement agency should be, they ought to be better.”
“At the end of the day, we need to test institutions, we need to test the validity of the actions of anyone who exercises either legislative or executive authority.”
