15th July, 2021
By Moji Eniola
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, has cautioned members of the public not to drag the commission into business transactions gone awry.
Bawa gave the advice while speaking as one of the panellists at the Alao Aka- Bashorun Memorial Lecture on Thursday in Lagos.
Bawa, represented by Mr Anselm Ozioko, the Head of the Legal Department of the EFCC, spoke on the topic; “Our Role in the Effective Implementation of Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption Law”.
He said that there was a general misconception by members of the public that the EFCC was a debt recovery agency and urged the public to stop asking the anti-graft agency to recover debts.
“I state with all sense of responsibility that members of the public, including legal practitioners in the course of carrying out recovery for their clients, should stop urging us (the commission) to do so.
“I must also state that in the course of investigating a financial crime, it is possible that a sum of money transferred from the account of a nominal complainant, may be recovered as an exhibit.
“In certain circumstances, the exhibits may be released to the complainant or the said exhibit will be used for the prosecution of the suspect in court.
“At the end of a successful prosecution, the court may grant a Restitutive Order for the nominal complainant, in which the exhibit will be released to a nominal complainant pursuant to the court Order,” Bawa said.
Fraud victims approach EFCC and they expect the organisation to freeze bank accounts of suspects, make them forfeit their assets and release the assets to them (victims).
The chairman said when the EFCC followed due process and did not act in line with the expectations of the victims, they become disoriented.
Bawa said that despite the best efforts of the EFCC, international online trading platforms like Paypal, have not restored Nigeria to its payment platform due to the nefarious activities of fraudsters.
Commenting on the roles of lawyers during interrogation, the chairman said that they were to observe and not interfere with interrogations by the EFCC and that they were not to stand as sureties for suspects in EFCC custody.
“EFCC has in some situations prosecuted lawyers who deposited their Call to Bar Certificates to stand sureties for suspects because their client jumped bail.
“In some cases, we reported such legal practitioners to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. It is not your responsibility as a lawyer to bail anyone, you recommend that someone is fit and proper to be a surety, not you, as a lawyer,” he said.
Bawa said that in many instances, lawyers have made attempts to frustrate investigations by filing fundamental rights suits against the EFCC when their clients are served with invitation letters.
“As a lawyer, you cannot stop a law enforcement agency from carrying out its statutory duties,” he said.
NAN