The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is not joking as far as high profile corruption is concerned. They are set to reopen all the corruption cases involving top politicians which had either been delayed or stopped through “fraudulent” perpetual court injunctions.
According to a top management officer of the EFCC, their hands were been tied as the court shielded such individuals from prosecution in the past, but they are ready to go all out against corrupt men and woman now with the backing of a no-nonsense President Muhammadu Buhari.
The EFCC man said: “Let it be made clear that EFCC will go after all cases that are deserving of investigation. There is nothing like perpetual injunctions anymore in our criminal administration justice code.”
One of such politicians they are going after is Peter Odili, a former governor of Rivers whose wife a judge in the Supreme Court. He had secured a perpetual injunction from a judge barring the EFCC from probing his eight-year tenure over graft allegations leveled against him.
The anti-graft commission had filed an appeal against the ruling but it has made no progress since it was filed over four years ago, due to complicity in high places in the past administration.
Nothing will stop the Ibrahim Magu-led team from reopening Odili’s case and bringing him to book.
“We have a duty to investigate all cases since we are empowered by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to investigate all such corruption-related cases and that is what we are asked to do.
“We are empowered by Section 15 of the new Criminal Justice Administration Act to investigate all cases irrespective of injunctions. We cannot be stopped.”
Others to be summoned include ex-Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and some former officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, who handled the disbursement of funds to Sambo Dasuki.
