Nigerians are Irked by Yahaya Bello’s Prolonging Fraud Case. But it’s not Our Fault – EFCC

Non conclusion of high profile court cases has earned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) the people’s ire against it.

The alleged corruption case against the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, the anti graft body says, is one of the cases that have drawn the ire of Nigerians against the commission.

Dele Oyewale, spokesman of the EFCC, stated this while fielding questions from journalists at a joint press briefing by the spokesmen of all the security agencies, including military and paramilitary outfits.

The briefing, organised by the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) in Abuja, had Public Relations Officers of the Police, EFCC, ICPC, Defence Headquarters, Nigerian Air Force, NAPTIP, NDLEA, DSS, Fire Service and others in attendance.

Throwing light on why some cases were handled swifter than others, Oyewale appealed to Nigerians to show understanding on why some high-profile cases take longer time before being resolved.

The EFCC pleaded that it should not be blamed because it cannot be an accuser and at the same time be the judge in its own case. In Oyedele’s words:

“I think it is important at this forum for us to properly understand the processes and procedures that are involved in the prosecution of cases. The EFCC as an anti-corruption agency is not the judiciary.

“We cannot be the accuser and the judge in our own matter. Our mandate allows us to investigate, to prosecute, to prevent, but our mandate does not allow us to adjudicate.

“You cannot take a matter to court and you come up with a decree and say that this matter should be resolved in two days, in three days.

“It is within the mandate, the responsibility of the judiciary to decide when the matter is resolved or not. So, we go to court like any other party. If a matter is resolved very quickly, very good, we will clap for the judiciary.

“If for one reason or the other there are issues that are delaying the resolution of a matter, the EFCC should not be blamed. You cannot blame us for that. Because you are ascribing an almighty status to the EFCC.

“You arrest somebody, you take him to court and you decide when the case is resolved. No, we don’t have such power.

“So, if a matter, like that of Saleh Mamman, where he got 75 years, was resolved very quickly, maybe because of some processes in the court that made it possible for the matter to be so quickly resolved.

“There are cases, they may be complex, there may be complex cases, you know there are witnesses, there are a lot of issues that are involved in the resolution of cases.

“So, it has nothing to do with the EFCC. We charge our cases to court. Our lawyers are about the best around the world.

“If you check our record, we have about 98% success rate in our prosecution. So you cannot say that maybe we are not diligent enough. No, we are diligent. We have very good lawyers. We do our work very well. We go to court.

“What is the business of the court, should not be blamed on the EFCC. And I want the media to please educate the public, because the issue of Yahaya Bello is always there. They continually harass us about Yahaya Bello.

“And we’ve charged the matter to court, the matter is in two different courts. And we are going to court, we wait for the judiciary to decide the matter.”

The anti-graft agency said it would not make any comment on the issue of electoral spending because the elections were yet to come, but promised to do so at the appropriate time.