Ministerial Nominee, Lateef Fagbemi Wants EFCC, ICPC Unbundled

Mr Lateef Fagbemi, a ministerial nominee from Kwara, has called for the unbundling of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Fagbemi said this at the screening of the last batch of 28 ministerial nominees sent by President Bola Tinubu to the Senate.

“The truth must be told, you fight corruption but at the same time, the way it’s fought in Nigeria leaves much to be desired. That is the truth.

“If I have my way, I will advise the President to unbundle, first of all, bring out ICPC, and EFCC together and unbundle them,” he said.

He said that investigation of criminal offences should not be handled by the same body adding that there must be a supervisory authority within the same system.

“If there is an investigation, it is another body, the prosecution is another body. It doesn’t augur well to ask the same authority to do an investigation and come and do prosecution. That is when we have a problem.

“Investigation takes time, especially in serious corruption cases. Are we prepared to wait?

“My take is that a situation should be created such as the one that happened when Hushpuppi was arrested.
“They had been trailing him for years, he didn’t know and nobody will talk to him. But the day they said the time was up, he also knew that the time was up,” he said.

He also said that the investigation should be thorough.

“It shouldn’t be that when a given governor leaves office, let’s go, EFCC is investigating you. That is not the way to investigate criminal matters.

“You can take your time to prosecute but when you do not, it should be like the way an average American will react when the FBI knocks at the door.”

Culled from Vanguard