EFCC overhauls legal team for subsidy thieves’ trial

Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde

There were indications on Wednesday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission might have begun the overhaul of its legal department as a way of presenting a strong legal team to prosecute perpetrators of financial crimes and those indicted in the fuel subsidy probe report.

A source, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said the leadership of the commission had expressed serious concerns over the manner in which the commission’s cases were being handled.

The source stated that the commission was not very comfortable with the way lawyers entrusted with the responsibility of handling the case involving the former Managing Director of Afribank, Mr. Sebastian Adigwe, and six other accused persons handled the case.

It was learnt that the commission’s reaction followed the condemnation of the commission by the trial judge for failing to produce a witness in the trial involving the bank chiefs.

Investigations conducted by our correspondent revealed that the commission might come up with serious changes in its legal team to ensure that cases being taken to court were not thrown out of court.

It was learnt that the commission was engrossed in moves to ensure that young lawyers with serious dedication to the principle and ideals of the commission were brought into the legal team.

The source lamented that the commission was not getting the requisite services from the huge sums of monies being paid to prosecute its cases.

The source said the pioneer Chairman of the Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, engaged the services of the young lawyers who were hungry for success and displayed a strong zeal for their work.

It was learnt that the immediate past chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, decided to go for the use of very senior lawyers which according to the source, had not made the difference.

“Well, I can tell you that the commission is worried about the way some of these high profile cases are being handled.

“We are worried that some of the lawyers are not living up to expectations of the commissions and I think steps will be taken to reverse the trend. This is not helping us at all. We are going to review this arrangement with some of the lawyers,” the source said.

The Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mike adoke, whose ministry supervises the EFCC started on  Tuesday that the Federal Government would ensure a thorough investigation of the raging subsidy saga for effective prosecution.

He said that the EFCC had been instructed to do a holistic investigation in consonance with presidential directive.