By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said those challenging the constitutionality of the law establishing it are people with skeletons in their closet.
The commission noted that those people would stop at nothing as they are bent on deploying the law to achieve their vested interests.
The anti-graft agency stressed that these people see its existence as a threat to their corrupt inclinations but they’re making their motives look ethical and decent.
The EFCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren said this on Monday in an interview with Channels Television.
He said he was “worried and shocked” about the suit considering “the corruption problem” in the country.
Uwujaren maintained that the establishment of the EFCC followed due process in the national assembly.
He called on Nigerians to reject the move to “derail” the operations of the agency.
He said: “I am worried that with the kind of problem we have with corruption in this country, some people will go to court to challenge the legality of EFCC.
“What you see playing out today is simply people who are feeling the heat of the work of the EFCC, and they simply want to derail what is going on within the EFCC. They see EFCC as a threat”.
Uwujaren urged Nigerians to see through the gimmick of those behind the suit.
“We are really shocked by what is happening. Nigerians should see through this shenanigan and oppose it.
“I don’t see how this country can survive without the EFCC with the kind of corruption problem that we have in this country. Nigeria cannot do without the EFCC”, he added.
Uwujaren’s words are targeted at a suit jointly filed by 16 state governors, through their attorneys-general, at the Supreme Court.
The suit is arguing that in enacting the law which created EFCC in 2004, the national assembly failed to adhere to section 12 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The section being cited governs the incorporation of international treaties into domestic law. They further noted that the EFCC Act cannot be applied to states that did not give their consent to its creation.
The governors are seeking the court to scrap the anti-graft agency and this has polarised even legal luminaries.
In two letters addressed to the constitution review committees of the senate and house of representatives, Olisa Agbakoba, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), said EFCC was not constitutionally established.
However, Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, and other civil society organisations faulted the move by the states.
The issue has become a vexed one. The Supreme Court, however, has fixed October 22 to hear the case.
