Lanre Adewole, in this report, chronicles the road to the nets of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by former state governors, who are gradually becoming the most endangered species of Nigeria's democracy.Are governors the endangered species of Nigeria's 21st century democracy' That is the question anyone aspiring to the powerful office would have to answer after a four or eight years stint in the Government House. Going by developments in recent times, it will not be off the curve to put the state governors top of the list of endangered species of Nigeria's contemporary democracy. Starting from 1999, the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo called both international and local attention to their Excellencies' alleged predilection to looting public till at every given opportunity. That regime drew unparalleled attention to the vexed issues of security votes, joint state/local government accounts and money laundering.Former Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman, during Obasanjo's administration drew the first blood when she publicly accused state governors of siphoning their monthly allocations from Federation Account by changing same to foreign currencies on the pretext of transacting official businesses on behalf of their states, and then stashing the funds in their foreign accounts allegedly scattered all over Europe and lately, hitherto unheard-of Islands.Though the then incumbent governors vehemently protested the tar brushing, the blanket accusation just stuck and since then, their excellencies at the helms of affairs in the states, irrespective of their political party affiliations, religious beliefs, academic backgrounds and callings with the exception of gender since no woman has been elected governor since 1999, have come to represent the human face of corruption in the polity, even when corruption is generally accepted to have permeated the entire strata of the nation's life.The tag apparently stuck because Nigerians could not see development in the states commensurable to the billions of Naira being collected on monthly basis by the governors, hence the conclusion that Nenadi must have hit the bull eye with her allegation, which was being consistently echoed by Obasanjo to the chagrin of the governors. The bold ones among them hit back at the Obasanjo administration by drawing public attention to the alleged sleaze in the presidency under Obasanjo's nose.Naturally, the governors became the target of the various anti-corruption commissions like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) set up by the Obasanjo's administration to purge the polity of official sleaze, with the latter though coming after the former, becoming more effective especially in tackling the state governors, starting from the era of the commission's pioneer boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.In an interview with our sister publication; the Sunday Tribune in December 2005, Ribadu, who was then picked as Tribune's Man of the Year in acknowledgment of his devotion to the anti-corruption war, had revealed that events that would herald 2006 would prove to the whole world that the state governors were not just being unnecessarily maligned on the corruption allegations.He was more than prophetic. First to be exposed was the former governor of Bayelsa State and then boss to current President Goodluck Jonathan; Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was arrested in far-away London for alleged money laundering.Before his handcuffed-image could be obliterated from the memory of Nigerians, Joshua Dariye, then governor of Plateau State and now sitting senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was also picked up for money laundering in London again by the Metropolitan Police, working in consonance with the EFCC.At this point, Nigerians were not ready to give any governor the benefit of the doubt, though a few of them, especially in the South-West, dominated between 1999 and 2003 by the Alliance for Democracy (AD), still got a little reprieve, save for the late governor of Ondo State, Adebayo Adefarati who faced the ICPC after his exit from office and the national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has been placed on trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal and is said to have some other alleged corruption issues still hanging on his neck at the EFCC.The hide-and-seek between the EFCC and the governors became more pronounced when many of them that got into office in 1999 were rounding off their second and final term in 2007 when the immunity granted them against prosecution by Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution was also thinning out. The commission herded many of their aides into detention as a pointer to the fate awaiting their excellencies at the end of their tenure in their respective states.Ribadu then also set the red light blinking by disclosing before the Nigerian Senate that he had concluded investigation into alleged corruption cases involving 31 out of the 36 state governors, with his disclosure rocking the polity to its foundation.Even if the figure was considered hyperbolic in certain quarters, it might not be completely wide off the mark, considering that between Ribadu and his successor-in-office, Mrs Farida Waziri, 20 former state executives have been put on trial for alleged corruption with the sum involved estimated at about N500 billion, while about nine others are said to be on the radar of the commission for prosecution over alleged theft of public funds running into another N300 billion.Of the lot, only two of the accused excellencies; Alamieyeseigha and former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, have been successfully prosecuted and convicted for corruption, with punishment that had been described as 'corruption-attraction.' While Igbinedion, who was accused of stealing close to five billion naira, escaped with a much-criticised plea bargain that saw him just paying five million naira fine and forfeiture of a few assets to the Nigerian State, Alamieyeseigha's plea bargain was shrouded in so much secrecy, leaving Nigerians to wonder if he was ever asked to return his alleged loot to public coffers.Many have been querying the effectiveness of the commission's prosecution and ability to prepare water-tight cases against the state executives, considering that what could be called its success in court against this class of alleged corrupt persons, has come mainly from sitting with the corrupt former governors to tie a deal on what they should keep from their loot and what should be returned to the public treasury where the monies were illegally taken from in the first place.The commission's spokesman, Mr Femi Babafemi, has, however, defended the recourse to plea bargaining, as he said, 'Plea bargain is one of the best global practices in criminal trials basically to avoid time waste, dispossess accused persons of the proceeds of crime at little or no cost to the prosecution. Besides, it comes as a middle way solution to the endless delays encountered in the trial of corruption cases in this part of the world. That is, if conviction is not coming as expected due, one can at least deny the accused the benefits of the proceeds of the alleged crime. However, the commission's chairman has never hidden her discomfort with plea bargain and that explains why she has painstakingly stood by her cases which figure continues to rise in the courts. This explains why, the only high profile conviction ever recorded through the normal court trial in the history of the commission today, that is, Olabode George and five others, was recorded by her.Another issue that has been on the front-burner in the commission's battle against the former governors is the snail-speed with which their prosecution has been progressing and those agitating over it could be pardoned when one considers that the impeached Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose was arraigned on December 17, 2006 on a 51-count charge of alleged theft of N1.2 billion, with the main trial yet to commence, close to five years after he was first docked.On the Fayose matter, the commission accused his lawyers of using frivolous applications to frustrate and delay the trial, even after his objection to have the trial at the Federal High Court in Lagos had been acquiesced to and the trial transferred to his home state as requested by him.According to Babafemi, 'This is a major challenge which has made the establishment of special courts to try corruption cases inevitable. These delays are basically caused by all manner of applications filed by defence counsel, not to vindicate the accused, but to frustrate trials and stall them. 'Whereas, by virtue of the provisions of the EFCC Act, many of these applications ought not be heard or allowed to halt the trials by the courts but unfortunately the reverse is the case.'Babafemi's boss, Waziri, has also been strident in her call for these special courts that would be sitting everyday, solely for the trials which would not be encumbered by other civil and criminal matters and luckily for her, many prominent Nigerians and friends of the country in international circle had taken up the battle-cry for her.But would the National Assembly, whose members have been having reasons in recent time to taste the bitter-pills of the commission and the state Houses of Assembly, who are being largely remote-controlled by their state governors, consider the request and shorten the life-span of corruption prosecution, by fashioning the special court into the country's law-books'While awaiting that rare gift from the lawmakers, the commission has come under intense pressure both from Nigerians who want an intense war on corruption and the so called powerful folks, who would want the Commission go it slow.Last week, the EFCC appeared to have further bared its fangs when it ensured a clean sweep of three former governors including Chief Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State and Alhaji Aliyu Akwe-Doma of Nasarawa State in one day. Days after, the commission added a former governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje, to the list. The decision to go after the four governors has however set tongues wagging afresh. Some have said that the EFCC has renewed its activism against corruption after a long layoff. Others said that the decision to arrest and place on trial only former governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could raise eyebrows. Is this a mere coincidence or a matter of convenience'The spokesman of the anti-graft body said No. Babafemi said there was nothing unusual about the development. According to him; 'A criminal investigation especially one involving high profile persons is not what you wake up one day and start making arrests. A lot of work goes into it, especially discreet enquiries. In other jurisdictions, some of these investigations, undertaken and concluded by the EFCC in three to six months take as much as three, five years especially when movement of funds has to be traced from one point to another, sometimes to other countries. And all these have to be done quietly. When all these are going on, the commission is working but just that they are unannounced and that is the most critical stage. And that's the very stage some people say there is lull in our activities. It only becomes public knowledge at the point of arrest, which is the way it's done anywhere in the world. So, what is happening now is not unusual.'Interestingly, the commission which had been excoriated at one point or the other as the lap-dog of the government of the day against the opposition, has had to deal more with former governors of the ruling party, PDP, than any opposition figure in the polity.Of the 20 made to face trial, 19 are of the ruling party, the exception was the former Kogi State governor and now gubernatorial candidate of the ACN in the forthcoming December 3, 2011 election in the state, Abubakar Audu, who is currently facing trial in Kogi State for alleged five billion naira fraud while he was elected governor between 1999 and 2003 on the platform of the then All Peoples Party (APP) which later transmuted into the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).The PDP former governors who are still facing trial include; Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State (N1.2 billion), Joshua Dariye of Plateau State (N700 million), Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State (N36 billion), Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State (N5 billion), James Onanefe Ibori of Delta State (N9.2 billion), Reverend Jolly Nyame of Taraba State (N1.3 billion), Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State (N5.3 billion), Michael Botman of Plateau State (N1.5 billion), Boni Haruna of Adamawa State (N254 million) and Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja of Oyo State (N6 billion).Others are Adamu Abdullahi of Nasarawa State (N15 billion), Attahiru Bafarawa of Sokoto State (N15 billion) and recently Alao-Akala of Oyo State (N11.5 billion), Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State (N58 billion) and Aliyu Akwe Doma of Nasarawa State (N18 billion).A very lingering drama has been playing out between the commission and the former Rivers State governor, Peter Odili, who secured a perpetual injunction against his planned arrest and prosecution for alleged mind-boggling corrupt practices while in office between 1999 and 2007. With the interim order living up to its 'perpetual' nomenclature by seeing four years out already there is the possibly it could outlive even the beneficiary of what is already seen as a judicial escape-route.Though the commission had vowed to vacate the said order, with feelers suggesting that Odili might not enjoy the judicial cover forever. The question many are asking the EFCC is, will the perpetual injunction serve Peter perpetually'Even those who are yet to be picked up for questioning among the former governors would have little to cheer if the news circulating was anything to go by. Though there has been no official confirmation, feelers indicate that such confirmation may not come since the commission takes delight in seizing its suspects stealthily.10 names are being currently bandied as the next targets of the EFCC war. While four of them are in office as incumbents, the tenure of two of them subsists till 2015. One of the said targets would have the opportunity of postponing the evil day if he succeeds in winning a second term in an election that would be conducted next year. Again, one of the targets is billed to leave office next year, when he would have completed his constitutionally two-terms in office , provided there would be no judicial pronouncement that would quicken his exit from office and into the waiting arm of the commission. Interestingly, the quartet are of the PDP stock, just like the other six out of office are, but one.Two of the six had been quizzed by the commission, one from the South-East and the other from the South-West. Of the remaining four, one from the opposition party participated in a high-profile election recently, one was a very influential governor during his eight-year reign in a North-Central state and the other two have had interwoven political history despite being from two different states from the South-Western part of the country.One hard-to-ignore fallout of the gale of arrests involving the quartet of Daniel, Doma, Alao-Akala and Goje is the poser being raised by Nigerians on when or if certain former governors would ever be arrested or questioned.When Friday Edition sought to know why such conclusions were being reached without those pointing out the names having any shred of evidence yet, either from the commission or elsewhere, a source within the commission who preferred anonymity explained that it was easy for Nigerians to make such deductions because it was commonsense that once a sitting governor's very close aides, commissioners and major contractors to the state are being invited for interrogation and detention, the target is the governor as the chief accounting officer who may be enjoying immunity at that time.Friday Edition was further told that the prosecution of a sitting governor becomes more likely when he leaves office if the local government chairmen are being quizzed, considering that apart from security votes, the more likely slush funds for an average governor is the local government funds which the governor had been allegedly tampering with through the controversial contributory Joint State/ Local Government Accounts.Another sore point in the anti-corruption war is the big celebration the accused have been making of their arraignment. The celebratory mood and the carnival-like solidarity shows have pervaded almost all the cases. It was taken to extreme state in the case of former Governor Orji Kalu of Abia State when people of all classes, including traditional rulers, were falling over themselves to stand as his surety.Many have been querying the absence of the usual remorse that characterised the arraignment of the likes of former Inspector General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, who was handcuffed to court by his then subordinate; Nuhu Ribadu, though the fact that the commission is dealing mainly with rambunctious politicians in the prosecution of the said former governors might make the Tafa-like solemnity impossible.A public commentator, Stanley Oko was however of the view that the commission could still make the court arena unattractive to corruption-minded persons who might want to take a wrong cue from such a scenario where perceived corrupt public office holders are being venerated at the point of justice.He noted that such scenario might have accounted for the scepticism of Nigerians on the war against corruption; many who now pooh-pooh the latest round of arrests as another circus show, while many are cynically deriding the commission's perceived obsession with former governors as just means of media attention-grabbing.Babafemi however differed. 'The commission is not focussing on governors. Their cases constitute less than 40 per cent of our high profile cases today. We are prosecuting over 25 bank executives today. That figure is more than the number of ex-governors being prosecuted now. May be it appears the focus is on them because their arrest or arraignment generates more public interest because of the attention of the public on that office'.It was almost a near-helpless Babafemi that reacted to the allegation of the arrests being a circus show. Hear him 'The justice system is a chain. In the chain, the EFCC by virtue of its mandate has a responsibility to prevent the commission of an economic crime, when the crime is committed, it has the responsibility to investigate, arrest and file charges against the accused in court. That is the point where basically our responsibility ends. From there, another stakeholder in the chain takes full control, what is left of us is to monitor and await decisions of the courts. We are not in a position to deny accused persons bail even though we more often than not oppose bail applications but when they're eventually granted, we are helpless because our powers or control ends at the arraignment in court.'How far will this hurricane Farida sweep His Excellencies' It is a simmering lava which only time can tell.
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