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Tag: AGF

Court dismisses Oduah’s suit over bullet-proof cars’ probe

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Wednesday dismissed a fundamental rights suit filed by Senator Stella Oduah.

The judge upheld an objection by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami (SAN).

Justice Abang said he lacked jurisdiction to determine the case because what was complained about did not occur in Lagos.

He awarded cost of N15,000 against Oduah, to be paid to the AGF.

Justice Mohammed Yunusa, now of the Enugu Division, had last August 26 granted an interim injunction restraining anti-graft agencies from taking any action against Oduah pending the determination of her suit.

It is over the 2013 purchase of two armoured BMW cars for over N255million by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) under her watch.

The case was later re-assigned to Justice Abang who had adjourned for judgment before he was transfered to Abuja Division.

He returned to Lagos to deliver the verdict.

Justice Yunusa had barred the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the AGF and the Inspector-General of Police from inviting the former minister for interrogation.

The order was to subsist until Wednesday’s judgment.

Dismissing the suit, Justice Abang upheld the AGF’s preliminary objection which challenged the court’s jurisdiction.

The judge held there was no evidence that the former minister’s right was to be violated in Lagos.

Besides, the judge said it would not amount to a violation of her right if the Federal Government had any valid reason to arraign Oduah in a Lagos State High Court as she alleged.

AGF contended that by virtue of Section 46(1) of the Constitution and Order 2 Rule 1 of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure, only a court within the state where Oduah’s rights were allegedly violated could hear the case.

“From the whole of the applicant’s averments, there is nowhere she mentioned that her right was or is being breached by the respondents within the territorial space called Lagos.

“There is nothing to show that the applicant was invited, arrested or detained in Lagos by any of the respondents in the suit.

“The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos cannot assume jurisdiction to entertain alleged breach of fundamental rights did not take place in Lagos State,” AGF’s lawyer T.A. Gazali argued.

Justice Abang agreed with Gazali’s submissions.

The AGF also said Oduah had not established any cause of action against it, having not proved that she had been invited, arrested or detained by the AGF.

“The applicant’s suit is not in conformity with Order IX of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009, hence null and void.‎ The applicant’s case for the most part is hypothetical and speculative,” Gazali said.

The vehicles, bought under Oduah’s watch as aviation minister, were said to have cost N255million, an amount that sparked huge outrage.

Oduah, in a supporting affidavit to the suit, had justified the 2013 purchase of two bullet-proof BMW cars by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The former minister, who represents Anambra North Senatorial District in the Senate, said the vehicles were bought for the use of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) officials who were in the country to inspect and certify the 22 airports being rehabilitated under her watch.

According to her, the vehicles were acquired to safeguard the foreign officials lives so that they would not be attacked by the rampaging Boko Haram insurgents who were causing havoc in the Northeast.

Oduah said the bullet proof cars were especially necessary because the visit of the airport inspectors coincided with “the peak of Boko Haram terrorists’ menace in the country, when the United Nations building and the headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force were bombed in Abuja.”

“It was thus imperative that the NCAA, which is an apex regulatory authority in the Nigerian aviation industry, operating under the SARPs of the ICAO and subject to assessment by ICAO, acquire its own armoured vehicles for the use of the ICAO officials coming for inspection and certification at the time,” Oduah said.

She added that the bullet-proof vehicles were captured in the 2013 budget, adding that they were duly procured in line with the Bureau of Public Procurement regulations.

Oduah said the bid to arrest her for a crime she did not commit began as the general elections approached.

According to her, the House of Representatives led by Aminu Tambuwal (now Sokoto State governor), and its Committee on Aviation, were especially out to get her.

But the lawmakers’ move, she said, was part of a grand plan by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to capture power by all means.

The party, she said, carried out a campaign of calumny by “demonising” the most visible leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Being a frontline PDP member, she also became a target, especially as she was seen as playing a crucial role towards the realisation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid.

She said as part of the APC’s campaign of calumny against her and others, the party’s leadership commissioned some faceless organisations to write letters to the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation.

Among others, she said she was falsely accused of “all manners of corrupt practices and offences in respect of my stewardship as Minister of Aviation.”

Oduah said was shocked by the allegations because the aviation ministry under her watch was run in the cleanest manner imaginable.

The former minister said despite her selfless service to Nigeria and the posive changes made by the ministry under her watch, including the revamping of the country’s air transportation, Tambuwal still ordered her investigation based on the petitions containing “spurious and wild allegations.”

She said because of her electoral value and strategic politicking, she had been a target of the ploy by the APC to weaken the PDP and distract its leaders with trumped up charges.

According to her, part of the APC plan was to charge PDP leaders “in a criminal trial in a Lagos State Government-controlled court.”

Oduah said unless the court intervened, “the APC will unleash repression against her and others and this may cause the country to recede to a one-party state, with gross adverse effects and irreparable damage to our nascent democracy.”

February 17, 2016
AGF to CCT: Pick a date for resumption of Saraki’s trial

The Office of the Attorney General of the federation (AGF) has asked the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to pick a date for resumption of trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

Saraki is facing a 13-count charge for allegedly falsifying his asset declaration when he was governor of Kwara State.

The case was stalled by an appeal the Senate president filed at the Supreme Court to challenge the tribunal’s jurisdiction on the matter.

However, the apex court on Friday last week dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.

The AGF’s request for a trial date is informed by the court’s decision.

February 9, 2016
Palladium versus the AGF: must ‘theory’ pit respect for the rule of law against justice for a looted and deeply wronged nation and its peoples? (2)

I concluded the discussion in last week’s column on the universal demand in our country that looters must not go unpunished; that the loot must be recovered and used to alleviate the hardship and suffering of the masses of our peoples throughout the country; and that in the name of all that is worthy of contributing to the collective moral progress of our society, the looting must stop. I make this composite demand central to this concluding piece to the series that began last week because it completely got lost in the fog of the overwhelming formalism of Akinlotan’s ‘theory’ that places its own intellectual center of gravity in the abstract principle of respect for the rule of law. Moreover, I am especially mindful of the fact that Akinlotan deploys this principle of respect for the rule of law in a manner pits it against the demand for justice. For this reason, I now wish to show in this concluding piece that I am not against respect for the rule of law; as a matter of fact, it is my contention that outside the self-enclosed theoretical universe of Akinlotan’s formalism, the rule of law, when it works at its best, works with and in furtherance of justice. Permit me to explain what I mean by this assertion.

Formally and ideationally, bothterms, the rule of law and justice, are abstract concepts and it is only in the context of the struggles that take place in the real world that any hope of bringing them concretely andproductively together can succeed. At the present time, the demand for justice by the masses of Nigerians in their tens of millions is the most powerful force that we have for making this coming together of respect for the rule of law and justice possible – but only as long as we don’t frustrate or negate the demand for justice with deliberate, ill-motivated appeals to the abstract principle of respect for the rule of law. In other words, nothing is more damaging to respect for the rule of law than consistent frustration of the demand for justice. Let us not mince words here: Nigerians in their tens of millions have come to a collective state of mind in which they see invocations of respect for the rule of law as nothing but a legalistic fraudulence that allows looters and their lawyers to get away with their predatoriness. In other words, while it would be taking their frustration too far to say that they are against the rule of law, all the same the Nigerian public has become dangerously hostile to abstract invocations of respect for the rule of law. This is why for the most part, they are overwhelmingly in support of Buhari’s disregard of the court rulings that granted bail to Dasuki and the other co-accused. This arises from the simple fact that for more than two decades now, Nigerians have seen looters go scot-free and their lawyers grow immensely wealthy on their share of the loot, a hellish harvest of loot that runs into billions of dollars and trillions of naira.

The supreme task before Buhari and the judicial order in our country at the present time is how to productively bring respect for the rule of law and justice back together. This, by the way, is not peculiar to Nigeria; it is a perennial challenge to all the national and international judicial orders in the world. If there is a Nigerian exceptionalism in this universal principle, it is the chasm that has opened up and widened immeasurably in the last two decades in our country between, on the one hand, respect for the rule of law and,on the other hand, justice. Let me specify concretely what this means and how it operates: merely and simply on the basis of respect for the rule of law in our country,the trial of accused looterstypically lasts for years and years and years in a more or less permanent deferment of consideration of the actual substance of the accusation; indeed, in the majority of cases, the substance of the alleged crime is never considered. This absurdity is possible at all because Nigeria is the only country on the planet in which interlocutory injunctions and stay of proceedings are applied to criminal cases; in all the other countries of the world, they are applied only and exclusively to civil cases.

Akinlotan’s ‘theory’ completely ignores this Nigerian judicial exceptionalism in its lopsided, formalistic but passionate advocacy for respect for the rule of law. This is what I address in this concluding piece, but before I come to it,I deem it necessary to briefly explain why I insist on using the terms “looters” and “looting”, terms that Akinlotan never uses, terms that I suspect he would perhaps dismiss as being objectionable as rabble-rousing calls to jungle justice.

In Nigerian status quo legalese, the preferred term for looters is “politically sensitive Nigerians accused of…”. In other words, the terms, looters and looting, are studiously avoided, perhaps so as not to seem to be prejudging the accused guilty before they have been tried. Well, fortunately, we are not all lawyers, at least not yet!For this reason, we don’t all have to use the morally sanitized language of “politically sensitive Nigerians accused of”. More seriously, I draw the attention of the reader to the extraordinary fact that rarely has anyone accused of looting our public coffers ever actually mounted his or her defense on the basis of a denial of the occurrence of the alleged crime. The universal defense tactic is simply and consistently to permanently postpone consideration of the substance of the alleged crime. And in the few instances when the substance of the crime is considered, the trial magistrates or judges have nearly always found the accused guilty – and then gone on to impose fines that are an insult to rationality and fairness with regard to the infinitesimally small relationship that they bear to the vastness of the amount looted. In sum then, looting and looters in our country operate with an aggressiveness, an impunity that is without equal in any other part of the world. For this reason, the very least we can do is return the compliment and call them by the vey appellation that they flaunt in our faces through their defense strategy and tactics – looters!

It is time to come to the heart of my observations and reflections in this piece. I repeat: the supreme challenge now in the ongoing war against corruption in our law courts is to obtain justice and restitution for a looted and deeply wronged nation and its peoples, both of which have for so long been denied in our criminal justice system, a feat for which we have a notoriety that is global. As I have repeated so many times in this column, looting that is so filled with impunity, that is so systemic is nothing but looting that is a mode of social cannibalism. If it did nothing else, Dasukigate brought this cannibalistic face of the looting frenzy of a segment of the political elites of our country to the foreground of public, national and international awareness. On account of this horrendous fact, only in Nigeria could any judge have granted Sambo Dasuki bail for this crime.

I repeat: it is a great challenge to Buhari and the judicial order in our country at the present time to bring respect for the rule of law into a fruitful and transformative relationship with justice. Akinlotan seems to set one against the other, i.e. the rule of law on one side and justice on the other side and never shall the two ever meet. As this reading does not tally with the Akinlotan whose columnis one of the few sites among the multiple locations of our country’s elite commentariat I regularly visit with intellectual pleasure, I would like to think that there is a slippage here that is not characteristic of his best and most insightful writing. Indeed, there is a slight indication in Akinlotan’s piece in his column of Sunday, January 31, that lends credence to this intuition of mine. This is in the section of that piece wherein Akinlotan gives advice on how Buhari and his AGF might take the high ground of sublimity toward the reform of our judicial system by not coopting the statutory responsibilities on the National Judicial Council (NJC) but working patriotically with that body. This is all well and good, but the question that arises from it is this: where has the NJC been all these years and decades when the looters more or less seized near absolute control of the Nigerian criminal justice system?

Beyond Akinlotan’s formalism and philosophical idealism, we must look to those aspects of the judicial orderin the real world of the Nigerian predatory republic wherein we can find strong and incontrovertible evidence of a predisposition, an orientation toward reform. In my own estimation, there are two principal locations of such residual reform-minded forces that could really make a difference. The first is the amalgam of persons and platforms within the Nigerian Bar and Bench who are profoundly opposed to the prevailing status quo that overwhelmingly works in the interest of looters in our criminal justice system. It was this group that worked tirelessly in the Jonathan National Conference of 2014 to produce the unanimous recommendation of the Judicial Reform Committee of that National Conference for setting up a special anti-corruption tribunal to try all cases of looting in our country. The second is the very group that Akinlotan completely leaves out of account – the Nigerian masses. Throughout the history of modern movements for the reform of judicial systems to make them work, not only or even primarily for the rich and the powerful but for everybody, when the important cases are being decided in the law courts of the land, the people in their hundreds of thousands are always massed outside the law courts to show their justices and the whole world that they have a stake in what is being decided in the high and low reaches of the Bench. Colonial Nigeria and Kenya; apartheid South Africa; segregated, Jim Crow America: we have seen it many, many times before. Why not now, I ask, in Buhari and the APC’s Nigeria in this epic war against corruption in our law courts?

Biodun Jeyifo bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

February 7, 2016
AGF blames agencies for non remittance to CRF

The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, is unhappy with some government agencies for not paying 80 percent of their operating surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) as required by law.

Exchanging views with members of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, who visited his office in Abuja, Idris said the problem is a major handicap facing his office.

He asked the committee to use its influence to enact laws that would address this challenge.

He bemoaned lack of appropriate sanctions against Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that spend revenue generated without authorisation.

The AGF also asked the leadership of the National Assembly to enact laws that would strengthen the public financial management reforms like the Treasury Single Account (TSA), IPPIS, IPSAS and GIFMIS currently being implemented by his office.

Idris reiterated the commitment of his office to the successful execution of government reforms, adding that OAGF has employed the services of a Quality Control Assurance Manager because the OAGF is now mindful of the activities of hackers.

Responding, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Finance, Andy Ubah, said the committee members are dedicated stakeholders in the struggle to ensure compliance with the provisions of the constitution, Senate standing orders and extant acts towards ensuring economic efficiency and effectiveness in the management of public funds.

February 7, 2016
Senate summons AGF over alleged plot to kidnap Kashamu to US

The Senate Wednesday resolved to invite the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over alleged fresh plot to kidnap Senator Buruji Kashamu and ship him to the United States to face trial on alleged drug charges.

Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions invited Malami following a petition to it by Kashamu through his solicitor Ajibola Oluyede.

Senator Kashamu and Oluyede appeared before the committee Wednesday to defend and throw more light on the petition.

Oluyede who spoke on behalf of Kashamu at the hearing said that the fresh plot to abduct Kashamu by unknown agents was revealed to them through a text message by an informant in the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

He noted that the plot was to kidnap Kashamu or if abduction failed to shoot him.

Oluyede said that their suspicion is that some interested parties in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation might have been perjured to facilitate the abduction of Kashamu to the US.

He noted that the text massage was so credible that they have no alternative than to seek protection from the Senate.

A member of the committee, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah wondered why those after Kashamu would want to shoot when a dead man could not be brought to face justice.

He also said that allegation that Kashamu operates a drug factory does not add up since factories could be identified.

Na’Allah noted that it looks as if there is internal conspiracy in the NDLEA if an officer could send such a message about the office he works.

He suggested that since the Office of the Attorney General had been linked with the alleged plot to abduct Kashamu, the option left for the committee is to invite Malami to state the position of his office on the matter.

Other members of the committee agreed.

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, said that the Attorney General had already written the committee seeking a date within the month to appear before the committee on the issue.

Oluyede later told reporters that “Recently it came to our attention that there were moves again, not to extradite him (Kashamu), but as the United States Government has a policy of rendition, rendition is forbidden by international law.

“It is also even a criminal Act under the US law but the US Government does it and the Supreme Court of United States more or less allows it by saying that well if you come to our country illegally, it doesn’t matter to us, so long as you are here, we have jurisdiction over you and we will try you on any offence for which you are brought here.

“So, on that basis the American security agencies often kidnap people and take them to the US to face what they call justice.

“Most of the time they have only done it in what they call enemy territory and only against terrorists.

“We have had only one instance in Nigeria where they have done rendition and that is against a motor dealer here, who was carried suddenly and exported to United States, Lanre Shittu.

“Now this is what is being planned currently against Senator Kashamu and we have it on very good authority and you will see we have quoted from an agent of the NDLEA, a sympathetic agent.

“He was even among those who were sitting in his bedroom with guns and wearing masks for six days.

“There were some of them who were giving us information and till today, there are still people in the NDLEA who have conscience.

“When they see any bad thing going on they want to be whistle blowers but we know there is a problem with being a whistle blower in Nigeria.

“Unless Nigeria enacts a law that protects whistle blowers it will be difficult to really hold on to some of our public officers who are actually criminals who should not be in public office at all and that is why we are relying on information given to us by this informant and we have quoted that text that that is the plan.

“Mr. Ahmed Giade was the chairman of the NDLEA at the time they invaded his house the first time to export him, the unsuccessful attempt.”

Oluyede claimed Giade has been “meeting with them and even the office of Attorney General has told us that they warned him to stop.”

“They wrote a letter and that letter is also in the bundle, telling NDLEA, we have this case in court you should not take any further step, don’t meet with the US officials anymore but the ambassador of the US came out unwittingly, voluntarily he told a newspaper that he is still meeting with Nigerian government officials for the purpose of the rendition of senator Kashamu.”

He continued, “The only government official he could be meeting with is NDLEA officials and that is why we take this text very serious and now knowing this we have made further inquiries and we have found out that is true because even after Giade retired in December from NDLEA his backers still got him into government.

“He is almost 80 years old he should be in his village but his backers smuggled him into government as Special Assistant to the Attorney General on Narcotics.

“This gives him a supervisory power over NDLEA even after removing him as chairman. He is still in control of NDLEA because the office of the Attorney General is the supervisory authority over NDLEA and it is in that capacity now.

“He is at the centre of this move to carry out the rendition of senator Kashamu and there are many more information that are contained in the document.

“The reason we are here is that the Senate should be able to look into this matter.

“Yes, there are certain aspects of this matter pending in court but there are aspects of it that the court can never look at.

“The court is not going to look into the internal workings of a government institution and find out whether those who have been appointed to hold office in that institution have carried out their duties in accordance with their remit or in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the court is not going to find out whether currently under the influence of a foreign power for the purpose of abducting, kidnapping a senator , nobody is going to carry out that investigation.

“It is only this hallowed chamber that has the supervisory power to look into what the executive is doing and find out whether the executive is actually complying either with the statutes that emanates from this chambers or even with the constitution and you have the power to do that, to call people to order and say this is wrong.

“You have the power to recommend to the president and say this officer who is in government is not operating appropriately and he ought to be dealt with.

“The courts cannot do that, the courts cannot usurp the function of the legislature and the legislature cannot usurp the function of the court. We humbly appeal to you to take the appropriate action in this matter.”

Oluyede said that a former Attorney General of the Federation was part of the conspiracy to abduct Kashamu.

Anaynwu said, “We have heard his case and we have asked questions. Having heard from you the Solicitor to Senator Kashamu, you may now leave and be rest assured that the committee has heard you and we will hear from the other correspondents and we will come up with a position on this issue.

“Meanwhile I think it is obvious that when we make our investigation we will put down our report to the entire senate

“We have to invite the parties involved and not in representative capacity to answer to the allegations.

“This allegation concerns Giade and whatever the senate will arrive at he is equally going to be affected by it so it only fair that we hear from him.

“This matter is before the senate and we think status quo should remain until we look at the issues in the petition and come up with a position.

February 3, 2016
FG to hold confab on financial fraud Feb 2

The Federal Government will hold a stakeholders’ conference on Financial Fraud, Cyber Crime and Cross-border Crimes on Feb. 2 and Feb. 4.

This is contained in a statement signed by Mr. Salihu Isah, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Attorney- General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, in Abuja on Tuesday.

It stated that the maiden conference was aimed at stepping up government’s fight against corruption and corrupt practices.

It stated that the conference was an attempt by practitioners, academics and policy makers to review current security trends in Nigeria and globally as it relates to transnational organised crimes.

It stated that the conference would also review trends in cyber security threats, terrorism, money laundering and its impact on national security, critical infrastructure and the financial system.

“The conference is expected to give participants the opportunity to determine the prevalence and patterns analyse the causes and proffer policy recommendations on tackling security issues that confront the international community and Nigeria.

“The cliché that one in every four Africans is a Nigerian is well known. Whatever happens in Nigeria always robs off on other African countries.

“Consequently, issues related to the impact of Nigeria’s security challenges on the sub-Saharan Africa will be discussed by experts drawn from various security and intelligence background.

“It will be organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice in conjunction with Digital Forensic Limited and Forensic Insight International Limited and in partnership with some private and public institutions.”

January 28, 2016
Kogi: INEC, AGF and APC leaders erred
SIR: The controversy generated by the declaration of the Kogi State election as inconclusive and the substitution of late Prince Abubakar Audu with Yahaya Bello has by no means abated.

Many people have argued that INEC erred by not declaring the winner of the election. Evidently, the election was already won in 16 LGAs by Audu, with total vote of 240,867 as against Captain Wada’s 199,514. Obviously, the valid 25,000 votes in the 91 polling stations cannot change the outcome of a supplementary election.

Again, that INEC erred by approaching the Minister of Justice instead of the Supreme Court for interpretation regarding Audu’s demise during the election; the latter hurriedly asked APC to replace late Audu without due recourse to the constitution.

The constitution and the electoral laws are strict about who participates and wins an election. After satisfying the requirements of the electoral acts section 31, late Audu picked Faleke and they became inseparable as clearly stated in section 33. The section makes no room to change or replace a candidate except in the case of sections 141, 142 and 36 (1) where a candidate dies before the commencement of poll. And from there it is agreed that they share the same fate in the outcome of the election. Therefore, replacing Audu with Bello is a grave error.

The reason for declaring the election inconclusive is flimsy, because when INEC pronounced the election inconclusive, the Audu/Faleke ticekt had clearly won the election. INEC had announced that they polled the highest number of votes of 240,867 against Wada’s 199,514 and won in 16 out of the 21 LGAs. Sections 133, 134 and especially section 179(1) (a) emphatically states that a contestant can be deemed to have been elected with a majority of YES votes over NO at the election; subsection (b) further stressed that he has not less than one quarter of the votes cast of the election in each of at least two third of all the LGAs. Section 69 of the Electoral Act corroborates that; in an election to the office of the governor, and in compliance with sections 133, 134 and 179, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected. This answers the question of whether the Audu /Faleke can be deemed to have duly won the election and the election cannot be declared inconclusive.

Further, section 181(1) of the Electoral Act states that if a person duly elected as governor dies before taking oath of office or for any reason whatsoever cannot be sworn in, the person elected with him as deputy governor shall be sworn in as governor.

It is therefore an error for INEC and the APC leadership to smuggle Yahaya Bello into a process that was already concluded.

The only claim of Bello is that he participated at the primary elections where he emerged as a runner-up. The Electoral Act in sections 87 (1) (b) states that the candidate with the highest votes at the end of the voting shall be declared the winner of the primaries. This section of the Electoral Act did not validate runner-ups neither does it suggest warehousing runner up’s votes for any reason. The sole purpose of primary elections is to produce a flag bearer for the party and that ends it.

Yahaya Bello could have been brought in only before the commencement of polls as stipulated in sections 36 (1) of the constitution. Fortunately for the process, he came late to be considered for any relevance, contesting without a deputy in a needless supplementary where he polled an insignificant 6,855 votes and even when the Electoral Act states that a tribunal or court shall not under any circumstance declare any person winner of an election in which such a person has not fully participated in all the stages of the election.

From the foregoing, it is incontrovertible that James Faleke is the governor elect. As proceedings unfold in the courts, the rights of the petitioner and electorates must be protected as justice should not be done, but should be seen to be done.
- Akerejola Abiodun,
Lokoja, Kogi State.
January 25, 2016
AGF: corrupt judges won’t escape

THE Federal Government has declared that corrupt judges will no longer be allowed to escape from justice in line with the cardinal agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to fight corruption.

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN) said this yesterday while speaking as special guest at a media launch of a report, titled: “Go Home and Sin no more: Corrupt Judges escaping from justice in Nigeria”.

It was organised by Socio Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) at Weston Hotels, Opebi Link road, Ikeja.

Malami said: “I can assure you that in line with the cardinal agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the office of the Attorney General of the Federation shall ensure that every appearance of corruption in the judiciary is dealt among other measures through criminal prosecution and forfeiture to the state of illegally acquired assets.”

To achieve this objective, Malami, who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant (White Collar Crimes), Abiodun Aikomo, said the Buhari administration would actively promote and ensure that corrupt judges were prosecuted.

“Acts of judicial impunity will also not be condoned, so that our judges can be judicially accountable at all times in a corruption-free judiciary, which is both independent and impartial.

“All these, shall be achieved, together with partners like SERAP, without violating the fundamental human rights of the persons involved, and in line with the Rule of Law and international best practices. That would be this administration’s own way of saying: Go and sin no more.

“Considering the pivotal role that they play in the administration of justice, it is important to ensure that Nigerian judges, like the proverbial Caesar’s wife, are beyond reproach or even suspicion. Gone are the days when corrupt judges escaped from justice in Nigeria,” the minister said.

Mumuni said SERAP was looking forward to working with the Attorney General of the Federation to ensure the full implementation of the recommendations contained in its report.

The report suggested the prosecution of corrupt judges; referral by the Chief Justice of the Federation and the National Judicial Council of all cases of judicial corruption to appropriate anti-corruption agencies and publication and auditing of spending by the judiciary.

It also urged public and periodic disclosure of assets by the Chief Justice of Nigeria and all other judges; retired judges should be allowed to lead the National Judicial Council to improve its independence; and urgent investigation of allegations of age falsification among judges by the National Judicial Council.

It also advised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), among others, to proactively and robustly use their statutory powers to investigate and prosecute judicial corruption and to request from the NJC files on cases of corrupt judges for prosecution.

January 20, 2016
AGF tasks ANAN, seeks scientific solution to corruption, unemployment

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris yesterday asked Research Committee Members of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) to find scietific solution to corruption and unemployment.

Idris gave the charge in Abuja when he received in audience a high-powered delegation of ANAN on how best to handle the issues of research in Accounting.

A statement by the Deputy Director(Press), Mrs. K.N Offie quoted Idris as saying: “Research holds the solution to the myriads of socio-economic problems facing the country.”

He called on the Committee “not to be fixated on only core Accounting issues but to consider on other aspects of the nation’s life, particularly on how to raise the moral consciousness of the Nation,solving the unemployment issues as well as security problems.”

The AGF said when was newly appointed, he charged his colleagues to get interested in Research Processes.

He said research will help to improve activities of the Treasury .

He said he also called on them to identify people of like minds to work with including the ANAN Research Committee to realize the OAGF ‘s goals.

Idris said that as the Treasury of the nation, OAGF has been key to initiating and implementing the various public Finance management reform initiatives for the Government such as; IPSAS, TSA, IPPIS, GIFMIS and several others.

He added that only through research can the processes be perfected to meet international best practices.

The Accountant-General of the Federation said research has to be taken seriously and subjected to imperial scrutiny so as to derive maximum benefit and enable the cleaning of anomalies in the accounting processes.

The AGF pledged the support of both himself as well as OAGF to the activities of the ANAN Research Committee

Earlier, the leader of the team and Chairperson of the Research and Technical Committee for ANAN, who is also the President of African Accounting and Finance Association (AAFA),Professor Jane Ande thanked the Accountant-General of the Federation for his unparalleled support for the committee.

She said ANAN was ready stated to partner with AGF to deliver on the mandate of the Treasury Office.

January 16, 2016
AGF meets World Bank’s Budget Support Mission team

Accountant-General of the Federation Ahmed Idris has pledged to continue with already instituted reforms aimed at improving public financial management in the Treasury Office.

Idris gave this assurance when he met with the team of Budget Support Mission from the World Bank at the Treasury House in Abuja, to discuss how to ensure the effective implementation of the 2016 Budget.

A statement by his Deputy Director(Press), Mrs. K.N. Offie, said the Accountant-General of the Federation described the World Bank as a great partner, whose role in promoting sound economic and fiscal policies in Nigeria and the world remains unparalleled.

According to Idris, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation being on the driving seat of the implementation of the reforms in the public financial management has made tremendous progress in their implementation.

He said the transition from IPSAS cash basis to IPSAS Accrual basis from January 2016, Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), which includes central personal cost monitoring, has led to reduced cost of personnel.

He also cited Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, (GIFMIS) which is a platform for e-payment and e-Collection as well as the full scale Treasury Single Account Implementation as among the success stories of the Nigeria’s Treasury.

Idris further said the refo

rms are necessary so as to bring the country at par with acceptable global best practices.

He, however, listed challenges being faced with the implementation of the policies as including infrastructural and technical capacity.

He expressed optimism that the World Bank would provide the needed support to surmounting them, whilst pledging the readiness of the Treasury Office to take the relationship to the next level.

The leader of the delegation, Ismaila Ceesay, who is the Lead Financial Management Specialist at the World Bank Country office in Abuja, said they were at the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to review budget performance for the previous year and to provide technical support on the implementation of the proposed 2016 budget of the OAGF.

Ceesay observed that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation is critical in meeting the criteria for receiving the Budget support from the World Bank.

He said the World Bank has been supporting critical reform policies geared toward efficient and transparent management of the public funds in the country.

He pledged further collaboration towards meeting the planned proposal of Budget Support from the World Bank

January 15, 2016