Legal Practitioner and human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana says effective collaboration between the arms of government and the anti-graft agencies can accelerate the fight against corruption.
He said this during an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily, while addressing the purported issue between the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).
While the EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu and the AGF, Abubakar Malami, had come out to deny reports of an existence, or impending face-off, Mr Falana stressed the need for the public to accept the situation as that and move on.
He further stated that the issue is “totally unnecessary” adding that if Nigeria hopes to win the anti-graft war, there must be inter-agency collaboration and the people must be carried along.
“We must try to carry the people along so they see it as their war and not the war of the government among members of the ruling class. On inter-agency collaboration, the office of the Attorney General, deploys lawyers to service all government agencies including the anti-graft agencies, the EFCC, ICPC, cannot file a charge in this country today, without a lawyer from the office of the Attorney General signing the charge. Even in the state, you need the fiat of the Attorney General to file a charge.
“By virtue of Section 174 of the constitution, the Attorney General can walk to any court even without informing the EFCC, “My lord, I’m taking over this case” and that’s the end of the matter,” he added.