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By Lukman Olabiyi
Rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana has tackled a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), over his position on constitutionality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Agbakoba recently wrote a letter to the National Assembly in which he had described the EFCC as “an unlawful organisation” because it was allegedly “unconstitutionally established”.
The ex-NBA president contended that the power under which EFCC was established was beyond the powers of the National Assembly.
In a letter dated October 17, addressed to House of Representatives Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, Mr. Falana said: “The Supreme Court has consistently supported the efforts of the ICPC and EFCC in fighting the misma of monumental corruption in the country.”
Making reference to Agbakoba’s letter, dated October 14 and titled: Re: Urgent Legislative Attention on Constitutional Reforms Relating to Law Enforcement Agencies and Anti-corruption Efforts, Falana said: “Even though he did not refer to any particular case, Dr. Agbakoba said that the Supreme Court has knocked the EFCC on many occasions.”
He also noted that the argument of Dr. Agbakoba was anchored on the premise that the establishment law of the EFCC has violated the basic tenets of federalism.
The activist-lawyer urged members of the National Assembly to take advantage of the ongoing constitutional review to end the diversionary debate about the validity of the EFCC Act and ICPC Act by entrenching both commissions into the constitution.
“In other words, if both commissions are constitutionalised, they will be protected and strengthened to fight the menace of corruption and money laundering,” he said.
To support his position, Falana recalled the case of the Attorney-General of Ondo State v Attorney-General of the Federation & Ors (2022) 27 WRN 1.
