Presidential pardon: Morale low in handling high-profiled cases – EFCC, ICPC prosecutors

Some operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) handling high-profiled cases for the commission in various courts have said their morale is becoming lower than before due to a recent presidential pardon. The operatives, who spoke on Sunday to Daily Trust anonymously in separate […]

Some operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) handling high-profiled cases for the commission in various courts have said their morale is becoming lower than before due to a recent presidential pardon.

The operatives, who spoke on Sunday to Daily Trust anonymously in separate interviews, said their dampened morale was based on the recent Presidential pardon granted to the former governors of Plateau and Taraba States, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame respectively.

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Dariye and Nyame were jailed for embezzling N1.16bn and N1.6bn, respectively totalling N2.76bn.

It would be recalled that the National Council of State had last Thursday endorsed the pardon of Dariye, Nyame and 157 other convicts following the recommendation of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy.

The 12-member committee, headed by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, was inaugurated by President Buhari in 2018.

One of the operatives who spoke to Daily Trust said, “It is quite sad that the two former governors could be pardoned despite our sleepless nights to ensure that those people who looted commonwealth didn’t go scot-free. Sincerely, this will definitely affect our zeal to prosecute any PEPs.”

Another operative, in his submission, said, “There is no need to waste millions of Naira in prosecuting political thieves, after all, they will be pardoned if their convictions are finally secure

“I’m still wondering the rationale behind their pardon by the Council of State presided over, by President Muhammadu Buhari.”