Justice Minister and Attorney General of the Federation, Mister Mohammed Adoke has put an end to the debate on the issue of the Onshore/Offshore Account.
Mr. Adoke who was addressing a valedictory court session of the Supreme Court retiring Justice Francis Tabai, warned politicians against overheating the polity as the federal government is working towards containing the challenges facing the nation.
He also reaffirmed the commitment of the government to partner with the judiciary in enthroning a just and peaceful society.
He said a Supreme Court judgment in 2005, in the suit of A. G. Adamawa and 21 others v. A. G. Federation and eight others, was a “judicial determination” of the onshore-offshore dichotomy.
The AGF said pronouncements of the Supreme Court should not be treated with levity, nor politicised.
He said, “In the light of the unanimous position of the Supreme Court on this issue, expressed since 2005, it behoves on us all to promote the sanctity of our judicial system by recognising that the pronouncements of this Court should neither be treated with levity nor be subjected to undue politicisation in the name of politics or the pursuit of particular interests.
“Our country faces several challenges today as we pursue the consolidation of our democracy and the triumph of the rule of law in all aspects of our national life.
“One notes with grave concern the recent deliberate attempt to resurrect this debate and elevate it to the level of an urgent national issue, with all its potential to generate acrimonious wrangling within the polity, as if it were a fresh matter on which there has been no judicial determination in the past.
“The (Supreme) Court, in a well reasoned judgment after benefiting from the submissions of some of our country’s finest legal minds, reached the well reasoned conclusion that the Act was not in conflict with the 1999 Constitution and was indeed properly made by the National Assembly to place the implementation of section 162 of the 1999 Constitution on a more ‘certain and predictable, basis.”
