For dragging Benue State into the comity of states challenging the legality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Governor Hyacinth Alia has suspended his Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice and Public Order, Mr. Fidelis Mnyim.
Gov. Alia fulminated as he told journalists that he had to suspend Mnyim for dragging Benue State into the matter without due recourse to the state executive council, saying that it was illogical for the state to be seen as challenging an agency that had been helping it to recover funds allegedly looted by the administration of ex-Gov. Samuel Ortom.
Enraged Governor Alia, therefore, surmised that the Attorney General’s suspension would send a strong message to other Commissioners and appointees of government on the need to always follow due process in whatever they are assigned to do.
The Crest recalls that 19 states had approached the Supreme Court to ask if proper constitutional procedures were followed in establishing the EFCC.
In approaching the apex court, the states had stated that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) requires the majority of the states’ Houses of Assembly in the federation to agree to bringing the convention in before passing the EFCC Act and others, which was allegedly never done.
In the suit marked: SC/CV/178/2023, the states premised their claims on the Supreme Court’s precedent in Dr Joseph Nwobike Vs Federal Republic of Nigeria, and argued that it was the 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 Nigerian constitution was not followed.
The plaintiffs, therefore, submitted that the EFCC Act, as enacted, could not be applied to states that never approved of it, in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution. Therefore, they argued that any institution so formed should be regarded as illegal.
The states that originally filed the suit are: Kogi, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Enugu, Oyo, Benue, Plateau, Cross River, Ondo, Niger, Edo, Bauchi, Imo, Osun, Nasarawa, Ogun, and Taraba.
While Imo and Bauchi joined the suit as co-plaintiffs, Osun State sought a consolidation of the suit, Anambra, Ebonyi and Adamawa withdrew.
The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, reserved judgment in the suit, promising to communicate a date for judgment to all parties in the matter.
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