Former Chairman of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Chief (Mrs.) Farida Waziri describes
the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, as a tough lady,
one who has all it takes to sanitize the judiciary. She also offers advice on
how to have a corruption-free Nigeria
Moves to sanitize judiciary
You cannot successfully fight corruption without a good justice
system and the adequate laws. When Justice Aloma Mukhtar became the Chief Justice
of Nigeria, I hailed her because I know that she is a very tough lady; she is a
woman of integrity and I know that sooner or later, she is going to take care
of the judiciary. That is what she is doing now because she has taken bold
steps to clean up the judiciary and I am sure it is just a matter of time,
things will be normalized in that sector. When I was EFCC Chairman, I cried out
on the type of laws in place to fight crime. On so many occasions, I said we
wanted a special court just like the election tribunal and other courts. I
proposed that we should have a special court and give a time frame for the
determination of the cases, so that corruption cases will be expeditiously
dealt with. It is even in the interest of the accused to have the court in place
because justice delayed is justice denied. I am very happy at what is happening
now because it shows that she is a woman who can give Nigerians what we want in
the justice sector.
Evidence Act
I have said so many times that our Evidence Act has been existing
since 1945. The Evidence Act we inherited from the colonial masters is still
what Nigeria is using today, until June 3, 2011, when there were some
amendments to the Evidence Act. Evidence is key to trial because it is the fact
that you will put together and present to the judge to enable him reach a
reasonable conclusion. There are so many old laws that should be expunged from
our stature book. Some of the laws we have been using are imported laws from
our colonial masters. By now, we should have reviewed all our laws to suit us.
In the Penal Code Law, there was a law called brigandage. Brigandage could be
taken for robbery today. At the time some of these laws were made, there were
no internet, no telephone, no cyber-crime or cyber-space, no facebook, no
Advanced Fee Fraud and many others. There were just little offences like
stealing, burglary and theft but look at what we have now, the world is
changing, it is globalized and the environment is not static. We need to review
all our laws and expunged all dead laws from our stature books. The National
Assembly should make laws that are acceptable to Nigerians, which we will all
understand. When I was in charge at the EFCC, unless and until I was ready to
go to court, I don’t approach the court. Before going to court, I have a legal
department that will look at the cases very well before taking an accused to
court. Apart from the legal department of the commission, I also engage
external solicitors that will sit down and discuss and agree to amend charges
before going to court.
Justice Talba’s suspension
The laws need to be reviewed because the judge acted within the
law. The sentence he passed on John Yusuf is in our law book. The judge did not
manufacture the provisions of the law he used to sentence John Yusuf. It is in
the law book. If the law provides for the law he used in sentencing John Yusuf,
what do you want him to do? But if you look at it again, the judge could have
used his discretion in passing the judgement. The corruption in Nigeria is endemic;
everybody is crying that we would not have been where we are now if we had done
things the right way. Monies meant for roads, pipe borne water, powers, health
facilities and schools are diverted into private pockets. Someone wrote an
article that influential people in the country no longer board an aeroplane
with others anymore, they all own private jets now. This is a country where
some people have not seen N1000 in one week, yet, many go around in private
jets. When you look at the circumstance of the situation and the mood of
Nigerians, you will know that people are angry about the judgement. Corruption
is much in the country. We have so many arm-chair critic in the country but if
you give them the responsibility they will fail. Some of the critics criticize
because they do not have the opportunity, if they have the opportunity, they
will not do what they claim that they will do. People that are very committed
to the project Nigeria are very small. What the judge did was not something
strange because he acted within the provisions of the law.
Amendment to the Evidence Act
The amendment done in the Evidence Act in 2011 was not much but
the only one that touches my heart was the admissibility of electronically
generated evidence (computer). Can you imagine that before the amendment was
carried out, computer evidence is not admissible in our courts! Illegal monies
‘flies’ from here and pass through about three countries before it get to their
safe haven. Those havens do not have any other business other than banking.
Banking is their only source of revenue generation. Countries like Cayman
Island, Seychelles and others do not have other source of revenue other than
banking because they are small countries. They sit on monies that come to them
because that is what they use to take care of their own people. I met with them
in Cambridge, when I was in office on the need to track these monies and they
said it was impossible for them to know whether the monies are legal or
illegal. I told them that they can discover good money from bad money if they
really wanted to. All they need to do is to confirm from where the monies are
coming from. But they will not do that because it suits them.
Source: Blueprint
No comments:
Post a Comment