EFCC Corruption Allegations: Why I Actually Resigned - Femi Falana Opens Up

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), says he has resigned from the editorial board of ThisDay newspaper after the paper published a report he described as “a figment of the imagination of its writers.”

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria explained in a statement that he took his decision after the paper published “without any factual basis” on April 3 that he influenced the appointment of Mr. Ola Olukoyede, the Chief of Staff to the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Falana said, “As the tendentious publication could not be justified, I was compelled to resign my membership of the editorial board of the newspaper.

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“In a desperate bid to blackmail me, the forces of corruption who are using the newspaper to fight back proceeded to allege that Mr. Olukoyede was a lawyer in my office and that I seconded him to the EFCC.

“It was also alleged that the EFCC had given me one of the properties forfeited to the Federal Government by ex-governor DSP Alamieyeseigha.”

He, however, said Olukoyede never worked in his law firm and that he only met him for the first time about two years ago.

“Having not known him or worked with him closely, I could not have recommended him for any position of responsibility either in the EFCC or in other public office,” Falana said.

He also rubbished the claim that the EFCC handed a property to him, saying, “The second allegation is equally a figment of the fecund imagination of the fictitious writers in ThisDay newspaper.”

According to the human rights lawyer, although the address of the property allegedly given to him by the EFCC is not stated, it is public knowledge that all the funds and other assets forfeited by the late governor were handed to the Bayelsa State government sometime in 2010 by the then management of the EFCC.

He added, “Based on my belief in public accountability, I have never said that the properties recovered by the EFCC should not be investigated.”

He called on members of the public to disregard the report “of the reactionary elements who are hell bent on diverting the attention of Nigerians from the mega looting of our commonwealth by a coterie of plutocrats.”

Falana In TROUBLE Over 'Supermarket Judgement Comment', Summoned By Court

Punch Newspaper - A judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice J.D. Peter, has ordered activist lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), to appear before him over comments credited to him.

Falana was reported to have said that Nigerian courts had become  “supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping” during the opening of the Enugu branch of the Nigerian Bar Association Law Week.

The Lagos lawyer was the guest speaker at the event. The theme of the event was Corruption and the Justice Sector: Implications for the Rule of Law and Democracy.

The lawyer was also said to have attacked the NBA  for condoning corruption, saying that the body’s  national election had become even more expensive than a  governorship election,   with each  candidate spending as much as N700m during the association’s presidential  poll.

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Falana  asked the National Judicial Council and the NBA to  restore  integrity to  the judiciary by identifying and exposing corrupt judges and lawyers.

However, a lawyer from Falana’s chambers had on March 28 appeared before Justice Peter, who sits in Court 5 at the Lagos Division of the National Industrial Court.

The lawyer appeared  in the court regarding a case, marked NICN/LA/601/2012 involving Chief Ebenezer Ayodele Obadimu vs G. CAPPA Plc.

Falana’s chambers is representing the judgment-creditor in the case and had then taken an application seeking to enforce the judgment through a garnishee procedure before Justice Peter.

However, before the lawyer from Falana’s chambers could make his submissions, the judge drew the counsel’s attention to an online publication in which Falana had described courts as “supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping”.

The judge subsequently adjourned the case for Falana to appear personally in court to explain “if he obtained the judgment by purchase from the judicial supermarket and for how much”.

He adjourned the case till May 13, stressing that Falana must appear in court to say how much he paid for the judgment which he sought to enforce.

As of the time of filing this report, Falana had yet respond to a text message by our correspondent seeking to get his reaction to Justice Peter’s directive. His mobile line also rang out when our correspondent called.

BOMBSHELL: Governor Offered Me £1m Bribe - Falana 'Opens Up To EFCC', You'll Be Shocked Why

Chief Femi Falana (SAN), a human rights lawyer has disclosed that a certain governor once offered hi the sum of  says he once rejected a bribe of one million United Kingdom Pounce sterling which he rejected.

Falana according to The EFCC Alert, a monthly magazine, quoted by Punch Newspaper made the disclosure at an anti-corruption workshop in Abuja recently.

Falana said the governor told him to help him launder the money to another country but he rejected the offer.

He said, “The governor asked me to assist him in transferring money abroad and I should claim it to be the proceeds of sale of his property. The price was extremely attractive. He was going to pay me a million pounds when money was money then.”

Falana said he was stunned when the governor told him that he had chosen him for the shady deal saying “nobody will suspect you.”

“I told him, Your Excellency, so it is my reputation that you want to buy with your £1m.”

The senior advocate said some of his colleagues accepted to launder the funds for the governor but were caught and exposed.

“Those who accepted the offer later found themselves in trouble as they were arrested and humiliated. They were only lucky not to have been charged,” Falana added.

Falana said it was unfortunate that lawyers had become tools of money laundering.

He expressed displeasure with the ruling of Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court in Abuja who held that Section 5 of the Money Laundering (Prohibitions) Act 2011 could not be applied to lawyers.

The judge in the ruling restrained the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering from enforcing the section as it relates to legal practitioners.

The ruling came despite the fact that the Act categorised legal firms as Designated Non-Financial Institutions mandated to record all transactions and forward to the Federal Ministry of Commerce for onward delivery to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.

Falana, however, urged lawyers not to rely on the ruling as it would not stand the test of time.

Excerpts From Punch Newspaper

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Fuel Price Hike: Tinubu, Falana In Sharp Disagreement

Following the outright removal of the petroleum products subsidy by the federal government, which has already ushered in another fuel price regime in Nigeria, there arose a sharp disagreement between a former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is also a national leader of the ruling All progressives Congress, APC and a renown Lagos based Human Right Lawyer and activist, Chief Femi Falana.

Tinubu described the decision of the President Buhari-led Federal Government to remove petrol subsidy as courageous.

The government, through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, on Wednesday, announced the removal of the subsidy on petrol, pegging the upper limit at N145 per litre from N86.50k.

Tinubu air his view vis a statement in Lagos on Thursday, said though the decision was a difficult one, it would ultimately become beneficial to the generality of the people instead of enriching the pockets of a few Nigerians, who enjoyed the fraud of the subsidy regime.

In furtherance of his argument, Tinubu, however, said that the subsidy regime on petrol had been bastardised beyond redemption, saying it would be a waste of time to attempt to sanitise subsidy payments.

The ex-governor added, “The president’s decision to reallocate funds once earmarked for the fuel subsidy and commit those funds to other more socially productive services and undertakings was a difficult decision. It was also a necessary one.

“Over the years, the operation of the measure was distorted to where it no longer functioned for the benefit of the masses but for the undue enrichment of a small club of businessmen, some legitimate in their work, some not.

“Instead of remaining a positive aspect of the social contract, the subsidy was transformed into an opaque haven of intrigue and malfeasance. It was turned into a shadowy process from which the unscrupulous extracted large sums of money without providing the services and products duly paid for. Fake businessmen became true billionaires over- night as if by supernatural force.

“To allow this unfairness to continue would have been a breach of the promise made by this government to the people.”

Tinubu added that the way out of the fraud inherent in the payment of subsidy on petroleum products was to end it altogether.

He stated, “It became a weapon of profiteering. The machinery of the subsidy had become so polluted that it was no longer feasible to talk about reforming it. Either it had to cease or we would have to surrender to the corruption now inherent in it.

“President Buhari has, with this decision, put an abrupt and just end to this assault against our economy and political system. He has made a courageous and prudent decision. It is time to end the fuel subsidy and to begin to subsidise the true needs of the people.

“To Mr. President, I say congratulation for having the courage to remove the subsidy.”

The ex-governor added, for some time, I have been a proponent of this action. I believed ending of subsidy was the only sure way to put to sleep the myriad demons that had invaded the subsidy process, sucking the blood of Nigeria, swallowing much of our needed money.’’

He argued that the action would put an end to agonising queues at filling stations while some unscrupulous businessmen’s bank accounts swelled at the detriment of the people.

The APC national leader said the current situation would also attract investors to the sector.

“Nigeria has taken the historic step needed to create a competitive environment that will eliminate smuggling, provide incentives for private refineries and attract foreign investments in the downstream sector and create employment,’’ he stated.

Tinubu admitted that the removal of subsidy meant “higher fuel costs generally”, saying, “I would be lying if I said this will cause no pain or dislocation.”

He noted that the President did not end the subsidy regime essentially to save money but “for the nobler purpose of putting those same funds to fairer, more equitable use in order that government might better serve those of us who are truly in utmost need.”

The APC chief added, “Thus, I ask everyone to take a step back to coolly and objectively assess what has been decided.

“We must not make the mistake of allowing our political and sympathetic attachment to the subsidy blind us to the hard fact that the purpose and benefits of the subsidy had long ago been taken from the common man to reside in the purse of elite few.

“We cannot persist in this imbalance and think it will help us to development. Instead, it is better to end the subsidy and use the funds to establish well-targeted anti-poverty programmes that actually assist the people in need.”

On the contrary, the human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, disagreed with Tinubu’s position, condemning the Federal Government decision on the price increase and described the action as illegal and immoral.

Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria warned Buhari not to allow the “parasitic ruling class” to hijack his administration.

Like Tinubu, Falana also, in a statement on Thursday, said the hike in the petrol pump price was contrary to the promise made by Buhari to the Nigerian masses while campaigning to be President.

He said by deregulating the downstream sector, the Federal Government was  disobeying a court  judgment obtained by the late human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, against the Federal Government in a suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/591/2009.

According to Falana, the court had declared as unlawful the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry because it was contrary to the combined provisions of the Price Control Act and the Petroleum Act.

Falana wondered why the Federal Government removed subsidy, after the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had recently claimed that the government had scrapped subsidy and was, as a result, saving $1bn and another $1bn on fuel importation.

Why urging Buhari to reverse the increase, which he described as provocative, Falana said, “At this stage President Buhari ought to prevent neo-liberal ideologues from hijacking the administration for the purpose of punishing the Nigerian people for the looting of the treasury and mismanagement of the national economy.

“Contrary to the position of the parasitic ruling class that prices of goods and services be fixed by market forces, the Federal Government has a legal obligation to protect the people from exploitation.

‘‘For instance, the virtual collapse of electricity supply has forced many corporate bodies and individuals to invest heavily in generators and diesel throughout the country.’’

Ezekwesili, Sagay, Aribisala Clash At UNILAG Over Corruption War

Legal scholars and experts hurled verbal missiles around a round table convened to brainstorm on winning the war against corruption at the University of Lagos on Thursday.

The round table, organised by the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, tagged “Winning the War Against Corruption” was also an opportunity to launch the book ‘Legal Perspectives to Corruption, Money Laundering, and Assets Recovery in Nigeria.’

The occasion began with the keynote speech ‘Rule of Law and Treatment of Politically Exposed Persons in Corruption Cases’ delivered by Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Mr. Falana, who was represented by Wahab Shittu, advocated the creation of special courts to handle corruption cases.

The verbal battle began after controversial scholar, Femi Aribisala, took to the podium to discuss Mr. Falana’s speech.

“There is no fight against corruption in Nigeria. And if there’s no fight against corruption, you can’t even talk about war,” Mr. Aribisala began.

And then he launched into a 10 minute speech that attacked the global definition of corruption by Oby Ezekwesili, a former World Bank vice president who had earlier defined corruption as “the abuse of public space for private gains”, the prescription of special courts by Mr. Falana; and current administration’s effort against corruption.

“Corruption cannot be narrowly defined the way Dr. Ezekwesili defined it, only relating to public institutions. We are corrupt in Nigeria. The plumber, the tailor, the whole society is corrupt,” said Mr. Aribisala.

“And we have not yet taken a decision, we have not yet gotten to a point where we are fed up. I mean, she (Mrs. Ezekwesili) had given an example of Hong Kong where people became fed up and said enough is enough. We have not reached that situation yet, I don’t know why not, but we certainly have not.

“The 2015 election was not an anti-corruption election. We did not have any political party that presented an anti-corruption mandate to us. The party that won the election was just a makeover of the PDP, I mean the PDP people moved from the PDP to the APC. If they were corrupt when they were in PDP, they became clean when they were in APC.

“So there is no mandate against corruption. If President Buhari was determined to fight against corruption, my feeling is that he gave up after losing election three times.

“Because the fourth time, he formed an alliance with people who he despised before. And they were not necessarily people who had a track record of being (sic) anti-corruption. So today, I don’t know who is anti-corruption.”

Mr. Aribisala said the current fight against corruption by the President Muhammadu Buhari government is merely a fight against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).'

“We have to make up our minds if we really want to deal with the question of corruption. If we want to deal with the question of corruption, Nigerians themselves must insist on it and we have to deal with it at the institutional level,” he said.

“The institutional fight against corruption that has taken place to the extent that it has, took place under PDP. The institutional structures, even the ones that the present government is relying on, are PDP structures. Whether it is EFCC, ICPC, TSA, all these came under PDP.

“In ten months of Buhari’s government, there has been no institutional structure that has been laid against corruption. We have simple had media circuses accusing people of corruption.

“You cannot fight corruption with corruption. And corruption is more than just the stealing of money. If you disobey the rule of law, you have corrupted the system. If you create an avenue where you have a big margin between the official foreign exchange rate and the parallel market rate, there’s gonna be corruption. If you have children of the rich getting into the CBN on nepotistic grounds, the corruption is still with you.

“If you have a budget that is padded left right and centre, and after this was revealed you passed it and say only a small amount changed in it, and we do not know what is in the new budget, you can’t say you are against corruption. There is no transparency in any of these things.”

Mr. Aribisala further stated that the current anti-corruption effort lacks a clear focus.

“Because the last 16 years was not just PDP government,” he said.

“The legacy parties of the APC were also in power. In fact when the PDP was ostensibly dealing with corruption, it addressed people in its own party. We are not having that now.

“And that’s why I can’t trust Falana’s prescription that we are going to establish special courts. I don’t trust this government to establish those courts. They will simply establish courts to decimate the opposition.

“People like Orubebe will be arrested, and they will file cases against him and several months later they will drop the charges against him. And they will have pronounced him guilty in the newspapers on charges that will later on be dropped. That is not a fight against corruption.”

Mr. Aribisala’s speech received a thunderous ovation from the guests, mostly students, a situation which irked Itse Sagay, a professor of Law and the chairman of the occasion.

“We are not here to make students clap,” a visibly angry Mr. Sagay, who serves as the chairman of a Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-courruption.

“We are here on a very serious business. And students, don’t behave like American electorates who are ignorant. Donald Trump. The appreciation of unserious people shows ignorance. How can someone come here and say there’s no war against corruption and there is clapping? ”

Mr. Sagay said the APC had a manifesto that spelt out its strategies to combat corruption, and admonished Mr. Aribisala to stop making statements devoid of facts.

“Obasanjo created ICPC, EFCC, they are doing well we don’t need to create new institutions. You do not win a war by just creating multiplicity of institutions everywhere, that’s irresponsible. We will work with the institutions that we have.

“You don’t dilute the meaning of corruption to a point that it is meaningless. This is a very serious discussion and I want us to be serious about it. If you are anti-government, please go and campaign against government and let your party win in 2019.

“This is not a venue for PDP campaign. Most inappropriate comment. We are here on serious business. Let’s maintain that seriousness,” he said.

With Mr. Aribisala appearing unperturbed by Mr. Sagay’s stern remarks, Mrs. Ezekwesili pleaded for another chance at the podium, ostensibly to further drive the case against Mr. Aribisala’s argument.

“The systemic nature of corruption as a cancer against a system of governance is demonstrated in the fact that the activity of corruption begins to happen at their different levels,” Mrs. Ezekwesili began.

“So for example, I wasn’t surprised that some of you were clapping. The reason you were clapping is that you are a page in your own level of corruption.

“There are many whose exam malpractice is the basis upon which they have come to school. So when you are talking about the need to wage a war against corruption, they are completely disconnected from it. There is a complete dissonance from it.”

Mrs. Ezekwesili urged the students to desist from applauding populist statements.

“You need to be driven by the evidence of the damage and the destruction that corruption is doing to you, at the unit level. If you think you are doing well now, you will do exceedingly better if corruption is effectively tackled in this society,” she said.

“There is no comedy session going on here. We are talking about something that can be destructive. You should be holding the gun to fight against corruption. The gun has to be intellectual, so I need you to intelligently process everything that is said.”

Source