The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has attributed delays in the determination of some high profile corruption cases to administrative and procedural issues in courts, including frequent transfer of judges which, most times, forces trials to start afresh.
The deputy director and head, legal and prosecution, Kano zonal command of the EFCC, Aisha Habib, stated this while presenting a paper on the challenges of prosecuting economic and financial crimes at a capacity building workshop for journalists in Kano.
EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said the deputy director stated that, cases being handled by judges who retire or were elevated, transferred or become deceased will have to commence de novo, thus resulting in severe setbacks for the prosecution, as the resources, time, and efforts spent becomes wasted. And this will further frustrate and derail the timely and successful prosecution of the cases as some of the witnesses may not be available to testify, thus prolonging the prosecution of such cases.”
She also highlighted the increasing sophistication of some crimes such as cybercrime which were not contemplated by the provisions of existing legislations. Such she said leaves gaps that are sometimes exploited by the defendants as criminal cases must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
She however acknowledged that the EFCC had been very successful with criminal prosecution despite the challenges. She revealed that the Kano Command of the EFCC secured a total of 180 convictions so far this year while losing only two.
The zonal commander, Farouq Dogondaji who represented the EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, said the aim of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of the participants by offering them better insights into the work and processes of the EFCC.
The spokesperson quoted the chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa as saying that the commission in its drive to keep pace with the challenges of fighting corruption in all its ramifications had so far secured 3,440 convictions of perpetrators of financial and cyber crimes from January to November, 2022.
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