EFCC, ICPC & GOVERNORS

Some months back, I wrote about “The Nigerian Untouchable” and mentioned that some persons appear to be immune from prosecution or out of the reach of the long arm of the law. Or is it that the arm of the law is short in Nigeria? Of course, one wonders if the whole corruption crusade is simply filled with hugger-mugger. So what gives with our two national anti-graft agencies and the recent prosecution/investigation of governors? I am talking about the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent and Corrupt Practices & other related offenses Commission (ICPC).

Section 6(a) of the ICPC Act 2000 lists one of the duties of the Commission as follows” “where reasonable grounds exist for suspecting that any person has conspired to commit or has attempted to commit or has committed an offence under this Act or any other law prohibiting corruption, to receive and investigate any report of the conspiracy to commit, attempt to commit or the commission of such offence and, in appropriate cases, to prosecute the offenders.”

On the other hand, Section 6(b) of the EFCC Act 2004 charges the commission with “the investigation of all financial crimes including advance fee fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting, illegal charge transfers, futures market fraud, fraudulent encashment of negotiable instruments, computer credit card fraud, contract scam, etc.”

It will seem clear that both agencies can charge Governors and their aides with corruption.

One of the most famous cases was the prosecution of Chief James Onanefe Ibori, which the EFCC “lost. “ Of course, there had been “prosecution overtures” on former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Former Rivers State Governor Peter Odili, former Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion, former Lagos State Governor Tinubu, former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor-Kalu and more. See my table below for a complete list. Also, the immediate past Governor of Bayelsa State Timipre Sylva is now facing prosecution for alleged misappropriation of N6.46 billion state funds and over 48 of his alleged properties has been seized, according to EFCC. I should state here that Mr. Sylva has denied ownership of said properties. What is confusing is that even though the EFCC states that it seized 48 properties, the court order may have listed only nine (9) properties and was an interim two-week order. Hope there will be a “Sylva” lining soon. No pun intended.

Former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniels is also on the hot seat facing charges for theft and alleged failure to declare assets. Even Orji Uzor-Kalu's case has been revived after the appeals court, last year, allowed the EFCC to go forward with its case. According to Channels “The EFCC had on July 27, 2007 arraigned former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu before an Abuja High court on a 107 count charge of money laundering, official corruption and criminal diversion of public funds totaling over five billion.”

Generally, all previous cases involved former governors, until they leave office either through loss of re-election, impeachment or expiration of their tenure. However, on Tuesday, January 8, 2013, it was reported that EFCC was investigating current governors for possible prosecution, including Governor Owelle Annayo Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan of Delta State, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State.

Although EFCC has not crossed the Rubicon to prosecute current governors because of their immunity, it appears that the aides to the governors may be prosecuted while the anti-graft agencies wait for the governors to end their tenures in office. In that vein, the EFCC recently arrested the Commissioner of Finance and the Accountant General of Imo State. Apparently, eight (8) sitting governors are being investigated by EFCC while four (4) are being investigated by ICPC.

In May 2011, while I was a Professor at a University here in Nigeria, I was privileged to take 28 of my students on a visit to the two national anti-graft agencies in Abuja, along with a visit to the Police Force headquarters and other places of interest to these curious Intelligence & Security Studies students. My students wanted to know why corruption was still rampant in the country and what the anti-graft agencies were doing about it. Although the students all agreed to enlist in the Anti-corruption Crusade, they left Abuja very disheartened with the State of the war against corruption and concluded that the government did not have the will power to fight corruption in the country. To them, the war was lost already and the politicians were the victors, while the citizenry were the vanquished. To buttress this, an anonymous blogger stated online that “Government is not yet ready to rid the country of corruption. All the EFCC CASE ARE JUST Jamborees that end with no conviction.”

Summary of 19 ex-governors with EFCC charges It begs the question: All these high profile cases, yet no legitimate conviction to date & unnecessary lengthy investigations. Recall that around October 2011 (months after the elections), EFCC arrested 4 former governors to wit: Danjuma Goje of Gombe, Otunba Gbenga Daniel of Ogun for N58 billion fraud, Adebayo Alao Akala of Oyo State for N25 billion fraud and Akwe Doma of Nassarawa for N18 billion fraud. Has anyone heard of Goje, Akala or Doma case lately?

Is EFCC & ICPC playing to the gallery or will there ever be a sustainable conviction that leads to actual incarceration of a governor? In other words, something more meaningful than Alamieyeseigha's plea-bargain of July 26, 2007 or Chief Lucky Igbinedion's plea bargain of January 23, 2008 wherein he just refunded Edo State N4.3 billion he stole, but did not go to jail.

How about the purported political undertones to these investigations? It has been purported that the Lamido/Amaechi presidential ticket of 2015 is not palatable to some powers that be. With the recent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) tussle over the Chairmanship of the Board of Trustees (BOT), one cannot overlook the might of the Governors-Forum. Nonetheless, it is being postulated that the federal might is being used via EFCC to witch hunt pro-Obasanjo Governors because GEJ and OBJ may not be on endearing terms. Can this be true, especially given the recent shindig in Abeokuta?

Only time will tell. Prof Alex Osondu Atawa Akpodiete is an author, Computer Scientist, Educator, Consultant, lawyer, Political Analyst, Public affair analyst & Social commentator. He has a Doctorate degree in Jurisprudence from the US. He has lectured Law, Ethics and Security & Intelligence Studies at the University level here in Nigeria and US. He also writes for a state daily newspaper & national monthly journal. He currently divides his time between Nigeria and USA where he runs a PR and an international capacity-building firm ATAWA GROUP. Contact him on 08138391661 or Profatawa@gmail.com. He is also on Facebook and you can follow him on Twitter.