The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has detained
the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Abia State, Mr. Sylvester Ezeani, for
his alleged role in the N23bn ($115m) that was disbursed by a former Minister
of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the build-up to the 2015
presidential election.
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| EFCC operatives |
According to the EFCC, the suspect allegedly received N20m
out of N241m while he was the REC in Cross River State during the March 28
presidential and National Assembly elections.
An EFCC operative told one of our correspondents on Tuesday
that the REC had failed to explain what the N20m was meant for and had thus
been detained. He said, “The REC was on Tuesday interrogated by operatives
of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in connection with an alleged N20m
electoral scam. “While serving in Cross River State, he was alleged to have
collected the sum of N20m out of the entire N241,000,000, which was released to
Cross River State from the controversial $115m lodged in a bank by Diezani.
“Ezeani, who has now been redeployed to Abia State, was
quizzed over his involvement in the scam. He is still in custody.” The commission also quizzed the lawmaker representing Oron
Federal Constituency in Akwa Ibom State, Nse Ekpenyong, for his alleged
involvement in a certificate forgery scam.
According to the anti-graft agency, Ekpenyong ran into
trouble when a non-governmental organisation petitioned the EFCC, alleging that
he committed perjury and financial crimes by submitting a forged National
Diploma/statement of result of the Abia State Polytechnic to the Independent
National Electoral Commission in the build-up to the 2015 National Assembly
election.
The petitioner also alleged that Ekpenyong fraudulently
obtained salaries, allowances and other financial benefits through his
contrived certificate.
A detective at the commission added, “Investigations by the
EFCC showed that Ekpenyong did not attend the polytechnic as alleged by the
petitioner and the ND did not emanate from the institution.
“Further investigations are ongoing on the case. Ekpenyong
has been released on bail.”
Meanwhile, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Fred Agbaje, says the
concern expressed by President Muhammadu Buhari over delay in the trial of
corruption cases is a serious indictment on the judiciary.
Agbaje, who said this in a telephone interview with one of
our correspondents on Tuesday, pointed out that it was up to the judiciary to
redeem itself and change the negative perception.
The lawyer was reacting to the President’s call on the
judiciary to support his anti-graft war by ensuring that criminal cases in
court were not delayed but expeditiously concluded.
Buhari reportedly spoke at the opening ceremony of an
‘‘International Workshop on the Judiciary and Fight against Corruption.’’
The two-day event was jointly organised by the National
Judicial Institute and the Prof. Itse Sagay-led Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption with the theme, ‘The Roles of Judges in the Fight Against
Corruption.”
The President was quoted to have called on the judiciary to
put its house in order, tackle corruption in the judiciary, be impartial and
politically-neutral, remove causes of delay in adjudication of cases and stop
tolerating the dilatory tactics of defence lawyers that prolonged high-profile
corruption cases.
Speaking on Tuesday against the background of Buhari’s
comment, Agbaje said, “It is a serious indictment to say the courts are the
ones encouraging delay tactics to frustrate the hearing of corruption cases. It
is a serious indictment on the judiciary. It is now for the judiciary to redeem
itself.” Agbaje, however, said the executive, through the
anti-corruption agencies and the police, should also share in the blame.
But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Godwin Obla, frowned
on a situation where the President would blame the judiciary for the delay in
corruption cases, adding that the delays were caused by some procedural
challenges in the country’s laws. Obla stated, “The President is less than two years in the
saddle and I do not think that his opinion as to whether time is wasted or time
is not wasted reflects the true position of the law. The truth of the matter is
that there are procedural challenges in our laws and some of us have repeatedly
spoken about it.
“The fact that someone is facing trial does not mean that we
will abridge their right to actually defend themselves. They have the right to
defend themselves; and at times in the course of doing so, they rely on
unorthodox techniques of delaying trial, but it is within their right and it is
within the confines of the law.
“Mr. President cannot indict the judiciary. Just as he is
complaining that it is actually taking long for criminal cases to be decided,
Nigerians are also saying that it is taking too long for the promises that he
made to be fulfilled. It is not a one-way traffic.
“The law does not work in the way it works in the military.
This is a democracy. The courts have tried, they’ve brought out certain
practice directions, they are making certain levels of progress but it is not
overnight.
“If we want to make substantial progress, we must invest in
practical amendment to our procedural rule of the court.”
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, had,
in his speech at the Abuja event, promised that the judiciary would no longer
dismiss cases of corruption against high-profile persons without trial.
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