A rights group, the Open Democracy Network, on Sunday took on Ibrahim Lamorde, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking President Muhammadu Buhari to sack him in order to create a more vibrant EFCC devoid of persecution of people.
The group said this in reaction to another round of charges filed against former Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State.
The EFCC filed another set of 50-count charges against Sylva just two days after the case against him was dismissed by a Federal High Court in Abuja.
He is facing these charges alonside Francis Okukoro, Gbenga Balogun and Samuel Ogbuku who were accused of using three companies, Marlin Maritime Limited, Eat Catering Services Limited, and Haloween-Blue Construction and Logistics Limited, to move about N19.2 billion from Bayelsa State coffers between 2009-2012 on the pretext of using the money to supplement the salaries of the state government’s workers.
Spokesman of the group, Mahmood Mahmood, said EFCC was engaging in a frivolous litigation against Sylva to the embarrassment of the country and its legal system.
The Open Democracy Network noted that Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja had on June 10 dismissed the charges which were renewed by the EFCC.
Mahmood said : “Having lost its case, the EFCC has approached the Federal High Court once again; even though, it knows it can never win this matter in a properly constituted court of law.
“This strange 50-count suit against Sylva constitutes an even greater abuse of court processes and, from every indication, it will suffer same fate as the other frivolous ones. Why?
“Even a young lawyer knows that once a case has been dismissed, the only option open to the loser is to go on appeal. It cannot return to the same court or a court of coordinate jurisdiction.
“Secondly, under the rules of the court, a prosecuting authority has to conclude its investigation before proceeding to court, satisfied that it has a case it can substantiate.
“Investigations and trials cannot be open-ended. Sylva left office since January 2012, why is it difficult for EFCC to prove anything against him in court? Their style has been to conduct a media trial in order to ridicule Sylva and try to ‘finish’ his political career. Unfortunately for them, Sylva is still rising!
“We are of the view that this ‘new’ suit against Sylva, a victim of President Jonathan’s impunity, constitutes a national embarrassment. It is an embarrassment to this government. It is an embarrassment even to the EFCC itself.”
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State and former Security Adviser to Sylva, Chief Perekeme Kpodo, on Sunday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari not to interfere in the corruption trial being faced by Sylva.
At a news conference in Yenagoa, the capital of the state, Kpodo said the rearrangement of Sylva at the court was the right step in the right direction.
Kpodo said: “I also want to use this opportunity to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for who he is. He said it clearly that he belongs to nobody. So, nobody will think Buhari will support anybody who has a corruption case.
“When Sylva was discharged, a lot of people said it was because he is Buhari’s man, but we know that Buhari will not indulge in supporting criminality.
“Sylva is accused of over N19bn fraud. Look at Bayelsa State, we are still living in slum and squalor – no development, no road, nothing.
“And one man is being accused of stealing N19bn and some people want the case thrown out without trial, that is wrong. Is it because he was in Buhari’s transition committee and people want the matter to be quashed? No, let him face the full wrath of the law.
“My appeal is that President Buhari should not intervene in the case. He should give the court and the EFCC free hands to handle the case.
“Sylva should be tried and if they find him guilty, he should be jailed to serve as a deterrent to others.”
