01.29.2007 19:05
Please allow me to post this comment here even though it is out of topic, it is a serious issue and it is about the threats EFCC issued to Dr. Saraki last week.
You know I am a strong supporter of the EFCC. I strongly believe in what they are doing. It is my believe that if they are successful it would create a new mind set in public service.
That said, let\'s call a spade a spade. Yes Dr. Saraki and family may have duped Societe Generale Bank\'s customers and citizens of Nigeria. But the law is the law. In law there is what is called espose facto law. Also spelt expose facto. In lay man words, this means that you can not retroactively make a criminal law. You can not make what was not criminal yesterday to be criminal today.
As we all can see the EFCC is not a civil defense organization. It is in all effect a law enforcement organization, created under Nigerian law which in essence is a creation of common law. Our jurisprudence is based on English common law. The expo facto doctrine is what common law is all about when it comes to its criminal branch. Expose facto doctrine forbids you or forbids entities from punishing its citizens retroactively. We saw this mistake during the Buhari regime. Which in itself was an abomination and a rape of our jurisprudence. This was so much enshrined in the drug law when the Buhari\'s administration retroactively applied the death penalty on three of our citizens. Up till today well meaning Nigerians have not forgiven Buhari for the tremendous unnecessary illegalities.
Now, and today we are in a democracy. In this our democracy we are copying our actions from the footsteps of other democracies. We copy the United States of America, Canada, Britain, India and the rest of them. Of course we are also developing ours while in the process.
However, when it comes to criminal law we have whole heartedly adopted the common law system, In some cases we have even codified these common laws into our penal laws. This is the reason I am very frustrated that no attorney has raised the common law expose facto doctrine as a challenge to EFCC action in retroactively prosecuting our citizens.
The federal courts and states high courts are flooded with retroactive prosecution of our citizens. As I said before I am in support of the EFCC but at the same time I do not support illegality.
Perhaps this illegality is not the creation of EFCC because I know that its head Malam Ribadu is an attorney himself. This mistake I believe emanates from the act that creates EFCC. Perhaps the Establishment Act of 2004 which created EFCC in itself is unconstitutional. Because if this act authorizes EFCC to retroactively prosecute our citizens then this 2004 act is unconstitutional and should so be declared by a competent court. Or if no lawyer wants to be seen as a renegade then instead of the Nigerian Bar Association sitting on their asses and criticizing Mr. Ribadu they should lobby our legislature to correct this illegality. It is a very simple thing to be corrected. EFCC could still be authorized to retroactively investigate people but its power should only be to seize properties if found to have been embezzled from public coffers. As long as citizens could not be retroactively criminally punished then the expose facto doctrine would not be offended.
We pride our nation as being ruled under legal principles yet, with our laws we offend the basic principle of our laws.
Perhaps this is what Dr Olusola Saraki was referring to in his Hamdala speech. When Dr. Saraki who I am not defending was talking about the contravention of the exposed facto doctrine by the EFCC, because this agency has openly flouted this doctrine. The case of the Kogi state Ex-Governor is an example. The question is what is the matter with our fellow Nigerian attorney. How come none of them have challenged EFCC based on this very common law doctrine. I am sure our Supreme Court itself a creation of common law would be very open to this argument. The thing Nigerian lawyers are more interested in is big fees instead of their clients interest. I hope lawyers are perusing this website as they should and are taking notes.
If Dr.Saraki has offended the EFCC acts recently, then for God\'s Sake go after him criminally but if his offenses are those committed before EFCC came into operation, I believe only civil penalties are therefore appropriate.

Solomon Obong,
Staten Island, New York.

01.29.2007 15:47
This is a critical time in Nigerian history. Nigerians should form \"neighbourhood watch\". We should not let other \"adedibus\" pull us into the pool of regrets\"\". However, security agents should not see this as another joker, it is a serious issue.