DSS vs Emefiele: The a to be more proactive
Going by the motley of court judgements coming in defence of the suspended former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in spite of the unfettering…
Going by the motley of court judgements coming in defence of the suspended former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in spite of the unfettering infractions of the dramatis personae before the public, the whole episode seems to be going the familiar way of the macabre drama associated with such high profile jurisprudence.
Similar cases involving public officials of Mr Emefiele’s clout have been determined against prosecuting authorities be it DSS, EFCC and even the Nigeria Police Force at one time or the other for lack of diligent prosecution underpinned by unnecessary delays in charging the culprit to court, sensationalising the merits of the case to the point of giving the culprit the latitude of ambushing the prosecution team and all manner of bureaucratic ineptitude.
As cases are being bungled with reckless abandon both at the federal and state levels, assailing the huge resources expended on these prosecutions and denying justice to those that should earn it, in this case, millions of Nigerians whose livelihoods were put in the balance during the megalomaniac reign of the former CBN governor, it becomes imperative to establish a new constitutional layer of supervision for all the agencies saddled with the prosecution of alleged corrupt practices, especially the high profile ones.
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The DSS knows it lacks the power to keep Godwin Emefiele beyond the constitutionally stipulated period without charging him to court but willfully kept him until the latter got a wiggle room through the courts to enforce his fundamental right.
The new government of President Bola Tinubu should move swiftly to put in abeyance activities of dubious pettifoggers in covert complicity to bungle the prosecutorial forte of agencies established to rein in corruption and impunities such as the Naira re-design, the economic sabotage and the disruptive aftermath it exemplified.
This has inexorably brought to the front burner the need to unbundle the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and create a federal Department of Justice with specific mandate to coordinate federal prosecutions.
Bukola Ajisola [email protected]