The Ogun State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Oluwasina Ogungbade (SAN) has decried the continued inclusion of Ogun State in the list of states that took the Federal Government to Supreme Court on the issue of the legality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Speaking to newsmen in Abeokuta at the weekend, Ogungbade wondered why some sections of the media continued to include Ogun state in the list of the states in court against the EFCC.
“We don’t have a suit against EFCC. We never filed any action against EFCC challenging its constitutionality. We already issued a statement to that effect last week clarifying that we never had any suit attacking the EFCC’s constitutionality and that we did not join the suit filed at the Supreme Court filed by some other states in that regard. We respect the decision of states that have filed such a challenge as it is their right to approach the court. That is allowed in a democracy and in a Federation. But the papers we have filed are public documents open to scrutiny and So, I am surprised that some media outlets are still running reports that include and mention Ogun State as one of the States challenging the EFCC’s existence when that is not the case. I hope that such outlets will be guided by this clarification as well as our statement from last week, to put out the correct position.“
The Ogun State government had earlier on issued a rebuttal in a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Hon. Kayode Akinmade.
According to the statement, the constitutionality of the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) had since been determined by the Supreme Court, and Ogun State considers discussions on the issue closed.
The Ogun State government stated that it had no factual reason or recent development to reopen the question of the EFCC’s constitutionality.
It added that as a federating unit with law enforcement agencies of its own, it had no desire to undermine the Federal Government’s law and order objectives.
Providing clarification on the actual case filed by Ogun State in court, Ogungbade said : “The case Ogun State has filed (SC/CV/912/2024) does not attack the constitutionality of the EFCC. The suit seeks to invalidate the NFIU Guidelines and Advisory issued in January 2023, which interfere with the economic and governance interests of Ogun State and its local governments.”
“That’s what we filed. We are not challenging the constitutionality of EFCC in the case”, Ogungbade said.
It would be recalled that at the last count about five states have made applications to the Supreme Court to withdraw from the case initially filed by the Kogi State Government challenging the existence of EFCC, while the Benue State Governor actually suspended the State’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, for unilaterally joining the case without prior approval of the state governor.