Kogiflame
Is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), under Chairman Olanipekun Olukayode, about slipping on the banana peel, thus in word or act bungling what is essentially duty? This question is apt because of two different developments.
In its showdown with former Kogi State Governor, Yahya Bello, the EFCC thundered it would pull all stops to cage the ex-governor, fleeing from its dragnet. Bello, the self-named “white lion of Kogi” while in power, has so far been declared wanted.
A former governor has no immunity. Bello should have honoured EFCC’s invitation, and even after, turned himself in, as befitting of the dignity of his former high office. But if he decides on infantile fleeing, EFCC is within its powers to arrest him and start the due process on whatever charges it may levy against him.
But EFCC went too far, bragging it could involve the Army to arrest Bello. That’s craven and shameful — is ex-Governor Bello so mighty the Police, with the EFCC corps, can’t arrest him? What has the Army got to do with purely civil matters?
The criminal-justice system is strictly a civil matter. Besides, a case involving a former elected governor ought to come with far more sensitivity. Must the military always act as a defining rod over civil matters in a democracy, given Nigeria’s terrible experience under military rule?
Pray, did anyone ever hear the military yield ground on its enclave courts-martial, while trying its errant officers, even if that process itself is subject to appeal and possible review by the Court of Appeal, should the convict declare himself dissatisfied?
So, let the EFCC banish the thought of unleashing the Army to arrest anyone. It’s a craven weakening of itself as a civil institution. The Police and EFCC corps can do the job.
Then, the Wale Akinterinwa matter. EFCC announced on April 22 that Akinterinwa, Ondo’s ex-Finance commissioner and aspirant in the April 20 APC gubernatorial primary election, was in its net.
The optics of that sucks. How can an aspirant, in a governorship election, be in EFCC’s net on the eve of the exercise, without folks concluding — fairly or unfairly — that the EFCC was descending into politics? Yeah, yeah: EFCC explained that Akinterinwa “turned himself in” — maybe. But the perception is no less rotten.
The Ola Olukayode EFCC should be careful not to down itself with unforced errors; lest it slips on needless banana peels. That it must do with careful comments and even more careful actions.
Both are imperative if it must successfully fight graft and be seen to be so.
The Nation Nigeria
