FOLLOWING the suit filed by the 16 state governments contesting the constitutionality of the laws that established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the country, the Supreme Court is set to hear their request today.
The governors and the EFCC are eagerly awaiting the judgment of the apex court, which would confirm the legality or otherwise of the anti-graft commission.
The state governments, in their suit, had argued that the Supreme Court, in Dr Joseph Nwobike Vs Federal Republic of Nigeria, held that it was a United Nations Convention against corruption that was reduced into the EFCC Establishment Act and that in enacting the law in 2004, the provision of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not followed.
They argued that in bringing a convention into Nigerian law, the provision of Section 12 must be complied with.
According to the plaintiffs, the provision of the Constitution necessitated the majority of the states’ houses of assembly agreeing to bring the convention in before passing the EFCC Act and others, which was allegedly never done.
The argument of the states in their present suit, which had reportedly been corroborated by the Supreme Court in the previous case mentioned, is that the law, as enacted, could not be applied to states that never approved of it, in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.
Hence, they argued that any institution so formed should be regarded as an illegal institution.
The suit was initiated by the Kogi State government and joined by the Ondo, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Enugu, Benue, Anambra, Plateau, Cross-River and Niger.
A seven-member panel of justices, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, fixed October 22 for a hearing.
Meanwhile, lawyers and Senior Advocates, Dr Olisa Agbakoba and Femi Falana, have expressed divergent views on the constitutionality of the EFCC.
Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, wrote to the National Assembly about constitutional issues related to law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and factors inhibiting the government’s objective of abolishing corruption, as stated in Section 13 of the Constitution.
In two separate letters to the Senate and House of Representatives, dated October 14, 2024, he stated that the EFCC was an unlawful organisation that he believed was “unconstitutionally established.”
He said, “I very strongly believe the EFCC is unconstitutionally established. The powers under which it was established go beyond the powers of the National Assembly. The EFCC is an unlawful organisation.”
However, three days later, Falana, a human rights activist, in his letter to the National Assembly, opposed Agbakoba’s view.
He insisted that the former NBA president’s position was based on the premise that the establishment of the EFCC violated the basic principles of federalism.
The Executive Director of Africa Center for Media Information and Literacy, Chico Onumah, reacting to the suit, noted that there is nothing unconstitutional about EFCC as the laws that brought about its existence went through due process.
“The commission was set up by an Act over two decades ago and I don’t imagine that there is anything wrong with that.
“As far as I know, the laws that led to the setting up of the commission went through the due process.
“The EFCC I know is a legal institution, the laws that set it up are there like ICPC and it went through the normal process. What is unconstitutional about EFCC? The constitution empowers the National Assembly to pass laws like this so I don’t see anything unconstitutional about this.
“They are legal institutions and I see nothing unconstitutional about the anti-corruption agencies,” he said.