EFCC, activists clash over corruption checks on Kogi

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and Coalition of Activists with former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), as arrow head, are at loggerhead over alleged money laundering in Kogi.

The disagreement between the two sides began on Thursday when the nephew to Gov Yahaya Bello, Aliyu Bello, alongside one Dauda Sulaiman, were arraigned before an Abuja Federal High Court, over alleged N10bn money laundering and fraud.

First was Agbakoba, who accused EFCC of media trial and going out of its anti-graft war in Kogi, then eight other coalition members which voiced out their support for Agbakoba’s claim.

The SAN had argued, “how a state spends its money should not be the business of the anti-graft agency”.

Agbakoba said the EFCC’s recent case against Bello’s nephew and the previous N20 billion bail-out controversy amounted to media trial.

He said the Supreme Court had clarified the scope of the agency’s mandate as contained in Section 46 of the EFCC’s Act, adding it did not include state expenditures.

But the EFCC debunked Agbakoba’s claims in a statement on Monday, when it expressed surprise over his “sudden change of attitude towards corruption in Nigeria”.

The commission’s Head, Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said the lawyer was playing a “game of ostrich” by “continually harping on Section 46 of the EFCC Act”.

Uwujaren said the lawyer ignored Section 7 of the same Act and various provisions of the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act, the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, “which give the Commission power to investigate all fraud cases”.

Uwujaren said Agbakoba’s attempt to paint EFCC as a lawless entity and a meddlesome interloper, with no business probing the stealing of Kogi State resources, was unacceptable.

According to him, “sadly enough, Agbakoba couldn’t provide any evidence to support his claim that the EFCC has been lawless, nor did he mention any law which the Commission’s investigation of the finances of the Kogi Government violated”.