Elder statesman and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Robert Clarke, says “jittery” governors and their predecessors challenging the legality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are not treading the correct grounds.
Clarke said governors and their predecessors “cannot challenge the Federal Government for implementing an existing law. They cannot challenge the police or any other agency of government (EFCC) for executing an existing law”.
The senior lawyer was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
Sixteen states have dragged the EFCC and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to the Supreme Court contesting the constitutionality of the laws establishing the two agencies.
The suit was instituted by the Kogi State Government and 15 other states. A seven-man panel of justice led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji has fixed October 22, 2024, to hear the suit.
Clarke said the legitimacy or otherwise of the laws that created the two agencies could be challenged by the governors but he doubted that the correctness of the move by the plaintiffs. “They have a legal right as governors to bring before the Supreme Court an action that challenges a law that is repugnant to the Constitution,” he said.
“If you look at the antecedents of the operations of these laws. Many of the very notorious (cases), I will not use the word notorious derogatorily, have been involving sitting governors, governors that are out of office, and therefore, they have every right to be jittery that this matter is mainly created for the governors’ bubbles but I do not see to that point.
“If there is anything in that law that runs against the constitution, they should let us know. But if there is no law today that says the Federal Government cannot pass a law relating to criminal acts of governors during their period of executive work, then I doubt whether they are treading the correct grounds.
“They cannot challenge the Federal Government for implementing an existing law. They cannot challenge the police or any other agency of government that is executing an existing law.
“This law they are trying to challenge is a law that was created at the start of our laws as of today.”
The EFCC is currently prosecuting the immediate-past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello over alleged N80.2bn money laundering. The incumbent governor, Usman Ododo, has been accused of shielding his predecessor from arrest by the anti-graft agency.
The senior advocate also said the judiciary must be very careful about conflicting court judgments.
“It is very unfortunate. I have discovered that the question of the interpretation of electoral matters is always on television being judged by one court in Sokoto against an act in Shagamu and all these things.
“If we are not careful in Nigeria today, we will turn our courts into Kangaroo courts because if courts of coordinate jurisdiction give judgments at variance with each other, and the superior court gives another judgment and we make all these issues on television, whereby the ordinary man or woman does not even what the courts are saying, we are treading on very dangerous grounds. We have to be very careful,” Clarke said.