Buhari's aide blames EFCC, ICPC for court losses

Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions,

In an interview he had with Punch, he said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission have been conducting their investigations in isolation of directives from the Attorney General's office.

During the interview, Obono-Obla said, "Although the Attorney General of the Federation has the power under both the constitution and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 to make a request of any case file that is pending either with the police, the ICPC, the EFCC or any of the prosecuting agencies, we met a brick wall when we requested the files of the high-profile cases of former governors from the EFCC and the ICPC.

"They don't cooperate with us. We cannot use a whip to start beating them, but I expect that the rules of public service require that if letters are written by the office of the AGF, those letters should be honoured.

"They don't want to work with the office of the AGF."

He said that the Attorney General's office will continue to make efforts to work with the agencies, but will not be held responsible for any further setback in President Muhammadu Buhari's war on corruption.

"We will keep on making the request so that at the end of the day, anybody, who accuses the office of the AGF as being responsible for the delay in the prosecution of criminal cases, then we present our evidence."

"We will request the case files from the EFCC and the ICPC again," he added.