By Sunday Ani
A lawyer and convener of Food Avail Nigeria and Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER), Frank Tietie in this interview, speaks on the legal battle between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, among other issues
What is your take on the various dimensions of the case between ex-Governor Yahaya Bello and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and what is likely to happen next?
The issues are clear and the Kogi State High Court made the issues clear, when it declared that Yahaya Bello is being witch-hunted and that there is an unjust application of EFCC’s wide and enormous powers against Yahaya Bello in a bid to persecute him and deal with the whims and caprices of political enemies. So, it is sad that an agency of government that has that kind of power does not play in such a manner that they can command the integrity and respect of even accused persons. Yahaya Bello didn’t say so; it was the court that agreed with him and gave such a ruling that he shouldn’t be arrested and he shouldn’t be unnecessarily harassed.
The court was very clear that it could not grant an order preventing a statutory body like the EFCC from carrying on with its job. However, the history of its dealings with Yahaya Bello showed that it was carrying on an agenda of untruth, media trial and an attempt to deprive him of his right to fair hearing and right to liberty. Yahaya Bello was able to convince the court that the EFCC was not conducting itself properly according to the tenets of criminal prosecution.
The court gave an order that if at all EFCC considers that it must prosecute Yahaya Bello, it should first of all approach a court, particularly the Federal High Court or any other court to obtain leave, having been satisfied that the conduct of the EFCC is actually below expectation. So, this is more political and it even contravenes section 42 of the constitution. When you consider that Yahaya Bello is saying that he is the target of political persecution, you will now realize that some other persons have the same problem he had.
What the EFCC is trying to do is to bring a contestation and a context of force having convinced itself that it made mistakes in the way it approached Yahaya Bello’s ordeal by filing false statements against him. These are statements that are contained in the affidavit that were before the court. The EFCC didn’t conduct itself properly and in that case, Yahaya Bello must fully use all the remedies available to him in the constitution.
Many Nigerians do not know that section 46 of the Constitution grants the Chief Justice of Nigeria the power to make rules as to fundamental rights enforcement procedures. In the hierarchy of laws in our country, the constitution is supreme and then if you must look at other statutes according to the court, the fundamental rights enforcement procedure rules are next.
And those rules declare that if you perceive that your rights are violated, you can approach the court for any form of protection. It is very difficult to fault what the High Court in Kogi made and the EFCC is trying to use force to cover up its mistakes concerning the way it has blown that opportunity.
How do we move forward from this because it has cost EFCC and Nigeria high-profile convictions?
First, the EFCC must understand that it works for the Nigerian State though it is under the control of the government. EFCC and its operatives and officials must stop thinking that they possess one kind of force that is above the law. And again, they shouldn’t conduct themselves with this air of being enemies of Nigerians. The overall goal of the administration of the Criminal Justice Act is to ensure that the rights of a suspect are protected.
So, the EFCC must now begin to position itself to obtain that kind of integrity by being civilized and realizing that it is under a civil authority. It can now engender confidence even among accused persons that it is out there to do justice and not to do the bidding of political enemies. Yahaya Bello perceived that even while he was governor, he saw all media attacks and threats. There was one particular piece of information that was contained in that affidavit, where he was advised by a certain official of the EFCC to go and have a meeting with the EFCC chairman in a bid for settlement.
These are highly unprofessional and EFCC must learn that they are working for Nigerians. Imagine the huge embarrassment for a country that is supposed to protect the rights of its citizens, you must appreciate that the system and even the judicial system, administrative system and Nigeria as a whole actually have bias for the protection of individual rights.
You can imagine someone like Bello Adoke, who was subjected to years of trial with serious accusations and the man was shouting throughout all these years that ‘I did not do any of those things; I was acting on a direct presidential order.’ Nobody listened to him and the EFCC turned a deaf ear to that and destroyed nearly 10 years of the man’s life. Nobody will subject himself to that kind of danger and will not take action.
Many Nigerians don’t know that when they say fundamental rights, meaning that those are rights that are equated with the existence of Nigeria and you don’t play with those rights, especially the right to fair hearing, right to life and right to liberty. You don’t just go and arrest because you don’t like the person, just simply follow the law. So, in one sentence, EFCC must operate as if it is working for the Nigerian state and not for the Nigerian government or political enemies of Yahaya Bello.
As a law-abiding citizen, why can’t Yahaya Bello go ahead and honour the EFCC invitation?
I wish I was Yahaya Bello’s spokesperson; I would have been properly briefed on that. I wouldn’t speak for him because I don’t know his reasons but I speak as a lawyer whose career in the last 15 years has been more in the practice of fundamental rights enforcement. And I can tell you why there is that kind of apprehension and there cannot be a better example than that of Bello Adoke.
The Supreme Court has held that nobody should be put through the ordeal of trial on frenzy grounds. That is the reason why for you to proceed to trial, there must be to a large extent, a likelihood of substantial facts that can grant conviction. But in this case, let me tell you what I think is the real problem and I rely on the judgement of the Kogi State High Court.
The conduct of attempted arrest is what holds EFCC in deficiency in terms of integrity. It also exposed the fact that Yahaya Bello as an individual needs protection. The courts are not Father Christmas and it is only when you approach them and ask for relief that they can give to you. I understand why there are many dimensions of violations of the human rights of ordinary citizens. Unfortunately, legal aid has not come to them and that is why I ran for a very long time a pro-bono practice, granting free legal representation, especially to persons whose rights were violated.
But those who have smart lawyers will always exploit the provisions of the constitution, and let me tell you something, the prosperity of a country lies in the fact that it is a law-abiding country. And it is institutions that define whether it is going to be a country that will have citizens that have a good standard of living or not. The simple reason why countries make progress is because institutions subject themselves to the law. Let us understand this.
I have a passion for this country to be great and for it to be as great as the United States, is for us to play by the rules, and all authorities and persons must be subjected to the law and not only law but also legal process.
What do you make of the complicity of the judiciary in the mess you are trying to describe?
Not at all and I can’t emphasize this enough; the judge is an unbiased, impartial, and independent umpire. It is what you present before him that he pronounces upon. This whole sensationalism of corruption trial must stop.
What do you make of a situation where courts of coordinate jurisdiction would seem to appear to be acting like appellate courts over each other?
I also do not hold the judiciary to be deficient here. I can tell you this; I have been a lawyer prosecuting a Senior Advocate of Nigeria for misleading a court at the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee. The idea is that we lawyers are the ones, who often mislead the court. If you look at this case of Yahaya Bello, you will find out that there is a certain suppression of facts before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
If the Federal High Court in Abuja was sufficiently made to understand that there is a subsisting judgement of a Kogi State High Court, demanding and directing the way and manner Yahaya Bello should be treated concerning his arrest, any form of embarrassment and ensuring that his rights are upheld, that judge would not have granted that warrant of arrest. Often we lawyers are the ones because we are just desperate to win cases forgetting that we are simply ministers in the temple of justice.