The News today is awash with quotes from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission blasting the NBA for its recommendation that the Commission’s prosecutorial powers be stripped.

Let’s break it down for you. 

On Friday, 26 August, the Nigerian Bar Association swore in the new President of the association at its 56th annual general conference held in Port harcourt in the person of senior advocate, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud. The first call made by the new President was one for reform of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

A.B Mahmoud commended the EFCC for its current work and achievements in the fight against corruption, but declared that the association must demand the reform of the institution i.e EFCC. According to him, there’s need for the definition of EFCC’s “mandate more narrowly and more clearly … In my view, its broad objective as an investigative and prosecutorial agency should be reviewed.”

The new President’s suggestion is that said reform should limit the EFCC’s role to investigation while prosecution should be handled by an independent resource prosecution agency.

While the crux of A B Mahmoud’s speech was the cleansing out of the judiciary to make the profession unattractive to corrupt lawyers (in his words), one will be forced to assume that this reform he’s called for is part of the grand scheme of a cleaner judiciary but the EFCC is having none of that.

In a response that is top-100-clapbacks-worthy, the commission, through its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, has rejected A.B Mahmoud’s advice. He said the new President’s clamour for reform was informed by a plot to create a cabal of untouchables who can be investigated but never prosecuted. That’s not even the biggest blow.

According to the spokesperson, the NBA President’s call for reform of the judiciary is “reassuring considering the evidence that senior members of the Bar have become complicit in cases of corruption and money laundering, leading to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arraigning two members of the inner bar for acts of corruption. A Bar populated or directed by people perceived to be rogues and vultures cannot play the role of priests in the temple of justice.”

He went on to say that “the Commission’s discomfort over this seeming innocuous proposition, stem from the fact Mahmoud was silent on the reason for his position” which is true as the NBA president never mentioned any specific reasons for his call for reform of the EFCC.

Continuing,  Mr Ujuwaren said “instead, Mahmoud’s suggestions appears perfectly in sync with a cleverly disguised campaign by powerful forces that are uncomfortable with the reinvigorated anti-graft campaign of the EFCC and are hell-bent on emasculating the agency by stripping it of powers to prosecute with the tame excuse that an agency that investigates cannot also prosecute.

The final blow was when he went on to indict A B  Mahmoud for being complicit in EFCC’s loss during the Ibori trial in Nigeria. He seems to think that the NBA President who was the Attorney General of the Federation’s counsel in the trial of former Delta State governor, James Ibori at the Federal High Court, Asaba  has some questions to answer. According to him, the same ingredients which led to a loss in the Delta State court were used to secure a conviction against Ibori in the United Kingdom.

Our verdict?

It seems to us that the NBA Presidnt needs to come up with a solid response to this clap back.

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