ICPC, EFCC Should Be Merged – Lateef Fagbemi

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Lateef Fagbemi on Wednesday expressed during his senate screening as a ministerial nominee that tackling corruption should not fall on one agency alone.

Instead, he suggested that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Related Commission (ICPC) should join forces yet divide their roles into investigation and prosecution.

Fagbemi, however, did not clarify which agency should handle the investigation or prosecution. Both the EFCC and ICPC, as per their founding acts, currently have the power to investigate and prosecute corruption cases.

The ICPC Act stipulates that the commission’s role is to handle corruption in the public sector, specifically bribery, graft, and office abuse or misuse.

Meanwhile, the EFCC is tasked with investigating and prosecuting cases of money laundering and other financial crimes.

Fagbemi said, “Truth be told, we fight corruption but at the same time, the way it is being fought in Nigeria leaves much to be desired.

“If I have my way, I’ll advise the president to unbundle, first of all, bring ICPC and EFCC together, unbundle them.

“Investigation should not be handled by the same body that must be the supervisory authority within the same system.

“Prosecution is another body. It doesn’t augur well to ask the same authority to (carry out) investigation and prosecution. That is why we have problems.

“We are not also patient enough. Investigation takes time, especially in serious corruption cases. Are we prepared to wait?

“My take is that, in a situation such as the one that happened when Hushpuppy was arrested. They had been trailing him for years but he didn’t know, and nobody talked to him. But the day they said the time was up, he also knew that the time was up.

“Investigation should be thorough. It shouldn’t be that when a sitting governor leaves office then say EFCC is inviting you. That is not the way to prosecute criminal and corruption matters.

“We have to put in place very good laws to do this.”

The SAN asked the parliament to make laws that would be good for society without the lawmakers “anticipating” how it would affect me.