A former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, (NBA) , Mr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has urged the new Attorney-General and Minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi to clear overlapping of functions between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC ) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Crimes Commission (ICPC).
Agbakoba also called for a general reform of Nigeria’s judicial system.
He made the call on Monday shortly after President Bola Tinubu sworn in Fagbemi, SAN, as the new Minister of Justice and Attorney – General of the Federation.
Agbakoba said there is a need to unbundle EFCC and restrict them to investigation only while a new National Prosecution Agency should be established.
According to him, another key reform would be to completely decentralize Police Force at the local, state and Federal levels.
“There are pressing tasks to be carried out urgently by the new Attorney General of the Federation.
“Major reforms of the criminal justice system, with particular reference to the utter confusion in the duplicated work of our law enforcement agencies, in particular EFCC and ICPC, are urgently needed.
“Also, there is a need to unbundle EFCC and restrict them to investigation only while a new National Prosecution Agency should be established.
“Another key reform would be a completely decentralized Police Force at the local, state and Federal levels.
“A major revamp of our outdated laws is urgently needed to follow the Rwanda example that modified 1,000 laws.
“Last but not least, the AGF must work on Speed of Justice. It’s a crying shame it takes upwards of 15 years to conclude cases from the High Court to the Supreme Court.
“Finally but not exhausted is to create sector-specific dispute resolution agencies to free up the utterly cluttered dockets of the regular courts.
“The other very important task before the Attorney General will be the unnecessary and wholly inefficient matter of over-centralization of our superior courts.
“There is no better time than now to hack down Nigeria’s highly centralized Court systems.
“The AGF is invited to consider major constitutional amendments to create a system of Federal and State Courts.
“State Courts ought to have exclusive Jurisdiction over matters related to them.
“It is also the case for Federal Courts whose Jurisdiction must be limited to Federal causes.
” It will free up the clutter at the Supreme Court and make it the Policy Court it ought to be in the first place.
“We have a brilliant Attorney General in Lateef Fagbemi SAN.
“This will be a simple task for him. He is a very good colleague and someone in whom I have the highest confidence regarding his abilities.”
(vitalnewsngr.com)
