…Over anti-graft agency’s disobedience to court orders
Barely 24 hours after they complained about disobedience to court orders by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), no fewer than 100 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and thousands of their members yesterday staged a massive protest in Lagos over the same matter.
The groups, during the protest, called for the sanction of the Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to service as deterrent to other public office holders who disobey court orders.
Leaders of the anti-corruption groups, who began what they described as a “Week-Long Protest Against Politicisation of the EFCC, Disobedience of Court Orders and Infringement on Human Rights of Nigerians,” marched through streets housing Ikeja City Mall, to Oregun Junction, in Ikeja, Lagos.
Joined by some lawyers, the protesters led by Barristers Cletus Okedube, Johnson Areola, and George Sanda, among a host of other activists, boasted that no amount of intimidation would make them give up their collective struggle against corruption and leaders undermining the struggle.
Spokesperson for the Transparency and Accountability Group, Ayodeji Ologun, who spoke on behalf of the anti-corruption CSOs, said that the Coalition of Anti-corruption Organisations, would not watch the country’s legal system undermined, insisting that if EFFC as an institution plays politics with its assignment, the leadership must be called to order.
He said that the need to press home their grievance was founded on the realisation that some anti-democratic elements were drawing the civil societies back in the fight against corruption.
According to the CSOs, the fixation of the EFCC on certain individuals and institutions “when grievous petitions capable of bringing the economy down are left unattended, gives the anti-corruption war, under the leadership of Mr. Bawa, a political colouration.”
Ologun said: “We are beginning to see anti-democratic elements within the democratic process, who are daily drawing us back in the fight against corruption. This is a coalition of different civil society organisations against corruption. For a while now, we have observed the EFCC flagrantly disobeying court orders. And we believe that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. If you are at the helm of affairs of an anti-graft body and you find it difficult to obey court ruling, such a person is a law breaker.
“One of the essence of leadership is obeying the tenets of democracy and the rule of law and key to that is court ruling.”
Executive Director, Centre for Public Accountability, Olufemi Lawson, who called on the media to be partners in the struggle for a better society by resisting intimidation, said, “we are not unaware of the persistent pressure on the media to downplay what is happening currently at the EFCC. This is just one of the series of actions that we are going to be undertaking as Nigerians. We will not relent until the Commission begins to toe the path of the rule of law.
“We cannot run a society on the wish and aspirations of a man. It must be consistent with the provisions of our law. And if there is negative pressure on the media, then we will not accept it. We are glad that the media has refused to compromise and we will continue this struggle.”
On his part, Declan Ihehaire, of the Activists for Good Governance, said that if the EFCC chairman had been ordered to be committed to prison for disobeying court order, he must go to prison.
“He has refused to obey court orders and he wants to send people to prison. And we are saying you can’t be sending people to prison when you fail to obey the court orders,” he said.
Leaders of the anti-corruption CSOs that began the call for sanction of EFCC chairman include the Chairman, Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran; Executive Director, Zero Graft Centre, Kolawole Sanchez-Jude; Chairman, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, Toyin Raheem; Executive Director, Centre for Public Accountability, Olufemi Lawson; and Ahmed Balogun of Media Rights Concern.
Others are Ologun Ayodeji, Transparency and Accountability Group; Declan Ihehaire, Activists for Good Governance; and Ochiaga Jude, Centre for Ethics and Good Governance, among many others.