EFCC submits 103 high-profile cases to the AGF

According to Punch, the list contains names of top-ranking judicial officers, including a justice of the Supreme Court, a judge of the Federal High Court, and a sacked justice of the Court of Appeal.

Also on the list, it was learnt, are some former ministers, senators and some persons being investigated for the $2.1 billion arms purchase scam.

It was reported that names of the suspects were not made public so as not to compromise investigations.

Although investigations into most of the cases are said to have been completed while some are still dragging because the alleged offenders are on the run.

"Some of the cases are still at intelligence-gathering stage, while some are at investigation stage," the newspaper cited an EFCC source.

"There are some that are the stage of charges being drafted while some are already ongoing in court but foot-dragging."

The Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions and Chairman of the newly-constituted Recovery of Public Property Panel, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla confirmed that the EFCC has handed the cases to the AGF.

"They are cooperating. They have sent the details of the cases we requested to us," Obono-Obla said.

He clarified that the purpose of the hand-over is not for the AGF's office to take over the prosecution of the cases.

He added: "The essence of getting the file was not to take up the prosecution. The essence is in line with the law that says the Attorney-General of the Federation is the chief prosecutor of the country.

"All those agencies are under the Office of Attorney-General of the Federation. So, we have to know what they are doing.

"We have to see what they are doing, so that if they are not doing the right thing we will advise them accordingly. The office of the AGF is as old as this country; the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation is as old as the country.

"These are some of the oldest institutions in this country. They have a lot of experiences."

The Presidential aide, however, refused to give details of the list when asked.

"I don’t want to go into the details for now. At the appropriate time, we will let you know what we have seen and what we are going to do."

On his earlier claim that the EFCC and the ICPC were not cooperating with the AGF, Obono-Obla said the agencies finally yielded because they know doing otherwise is tantamount to breaking the law.

"Yes, I said so initially, but they are cooperating now because they now know that the law is very clear and that there is what we call EFCC enforcement regulation which was made by the office of the AGF pursuant to section 43 of the EFCC Act.

"Also in the constitutional provision, section 150(1) of the constitution, section 174(1) of the constitution, sections 105 to 106 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, it is very clear that the AGF is the chief prosecutor of the federation and the EFCC is under him", he said.

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According to him, the Presidency did not mount pressure on the EFCC before it submitted the files to the AGF's office.

He said, "The law is clear. I don’t think there had to be any superior intervention. I have mentioned the constitution, the administration of Criminal Justice Act and the EFCC Act.

"The laws are very clear that they have to comply with the request of the AGF. The AGF can request files from any law enforcement agency in Nigeria and the law enforcement agency is obliged to comply."

Obono-Obla denied insinuations that there was a running battle between the AGF and the EFCC, which is believed to have made the anti-corruption agency to delay in complying with the AGF's request.

He said, "Well, they have not refused (to comply), we have the details from them now. Maybe they were taking their time. As I told you before, most of these cases are old cases from 2003 to 2004.

"So, if you make a request, it will take them time to put all the cases together. But as I told you, there cannot be any question of, they not obeying us. They cannot afford not to obey the Attorney-General of the Federation."