Imported User:
Senior lawyers, yesterday, picked holes in the recommendation of former Head of Service of the Federation (HOS), Steve Oronsaye, which recommended the outright scrapping of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission(ICPC).
The Oronsaye Committee on Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals and Agencies was set up in August last year by President Goodluck Jonathan to decipher ways of eliminating duplication of duty among government agencies, in addition to cutting their huge running cost.
Speaking exclusively yesterday with LEADERSHIP on the committee’s recommendations for the abolition of EFCC and ICPC, two lawyers: Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN) and Mr Emeka Ngige (SAN), said the Oronsaye report was shocking.
Sagay said, “I’m shocked, terribly shocked at such recommendations. The establishment of the two institutions was as a result of the inability of the police to perform the duty of curbing corruption in the first instance.
"We are still overwhelmed by the problem caused by corruption in the country today. To scrap the EFCC and ICPC therefore is to encourage corruption in the country. I don’t know why such a recommendation was made by the committee, but I believe it should be discarded completely, and with ignominy. It is absolutely anti Nigerian and unacceptable."
Ngige said, "The Oronsaye report if implemented would not only heighten insecurity but worsen the level of corruption in the country. He also pointed out that what the country needed at the moment was to strengthen enabling laws to position the two agencies for maximum performance."
