Imo, others join Suit challenging EFCC legitimacy as Supreme Court reserves judgment

 

At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, three states; Imo and Bauchi and Taraba joined the suit as co-plaintiffs while Osun sought a consolidation of the suit.

According to NPO Reports, the Supreme Court, on Tuesday, has reserved judgment in the suit filed by 19 states challenging the constitutionality of the laws establishing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The apex court is to communicate a date for judgment to all parties.

The plaintiffs, in the suit marked: SC/CV/178/2023, argued that in Dr Joseph Nwobike Vs Federal Republic of Nigeria, the apex court had held that it was a UN Convention against corruption that was reduced into the EFCC Establishment Act and that in enacting this law in 2004, the provision of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not followed.

The argument was that, in bringing a convention into the Nigerian law, the provision of Section 12 must be complied with.

According to them, the provision of the constitution necessitated the majority of the states’ Houses of Assembly agreeing to bringing the convention in before passing the EFCC Act and others, which was allegedly never done.

The argument of the states in their present suit, which they had reportedly been corroborated by the Supreme Court in the previous case mentioned, is that the law, as enacted, could not be applied to states that never approved of it, in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.

Hence, they argued that any institution so formed should be regarded as an illegal institution.

In another development, three states; Anambra, Ebonyi and Adamawa announced their decisions to withdraw their suits.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who was present in court as the defendant, had craved the court’s indulgence to take the process they filed on Tuesday morning.

Justice Uwani Abba-Aji thereby granted leave to the defendant to use the reply on point of law filed on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the number of states challenging the constitutionality of the EFCC and others had climbed to 19, including Kogi, despite the withdrawal of three states.

The states are Kogi, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Enugu, Oyo, Benue, Plateau, Cross River, Ondo, Niger, Edo, Bauchi, Imo, Osun, Nasarawa, Ogun, Taraba.

Source: NPO Reports