Sack Mohammed Bello Adoke Group Insist

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) called for the immediate sack of Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke over attempts to frustrate efforts of the nation’s anti-graft agencies in prosecuting corrupt Nigerians.  The group named the anti-corruption agencies to include, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB.) 

In a letter dated February 11, 2011 and addressed to the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan the group said “It has observed with trepidation the antics that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke has developed aimed at frustrating efforts of anti-graft agencies in prosecuting indicted corruption criminals.

“We also condemn the actions of the AGF, who is expected to be the number one public defender in Nigeria to stifle the nation’s anti-graft war without regards to the need to improve the country’s rating on the global perception index on corruption.  

“Since the appointment of Mr Adoke as the AGF, he is fond of the habit of asking  the Economic and  Financial  Crime  Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to drop corruption charges against his favourite Publicly Exposed Persons (PEPs)  for  his  own  ministry  to  preside  over  it.  

“And each time such cases are taken up by him, they ended up withdrawn from courts without recourse to the agency that might have expended time, energy and public resources in investigating such cases.  

“Recent information has it that about 30 cases have been or in the verge of being withdrawn in such circumstances. They include the ones involving the Vaswani Brothers, Kenny Martins of PEF notoriety, former Comptroller-General of Customs, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Julius Berger Plc., and Siemens among others.  

“The latest of such bid by the AGF is case  of  Alhaji  Suleiman  Bello,  the  minister  of  State  for  Health,  who  was  alleged  of  collecting  N4.2  million  from  the  Adamawa  State  Governor in  the year 2007.  After the ICPC has tried  in its own  bit in the effort to bring the culprit to book by making sure that he is being prosecuted, Mr  Attorney General in person  of  Mr  Mohammed  Adoke is  trying to misuse his power to cover up a sin that has already   been made known to the general public.  

“But for decisive intervention of a Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday, 28 October, 2010 which refused the bid of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), to withdraw the charge against Anosike brothers over the alleged dissipation of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc’s assets as Justice Pat Ajoku dismissed the AGF’s application on the matter.  

“The Federal Government had through the AGF, filed a 20-count charge against some purported directors of DTN- Fidelis Anosike, his brother, Noel, their associates: Nicholas Okoye and Gogo Kurubo and their firm, Folio Communications Limited.  

“The Government had accused the suspects of allegedly stealing about N3bn assets of DTN shortly after another judge of the FHC, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, voided the sale of the majority stake in the DTN to Folio. The judge had held that due process was not followed in the sale, saying that the action was illegitimate.  

“In his ruling on the AGF?s application to withdraw the charge, Justice Ajoku held that although the AGF had the powers under Section 174 (1) (C) of the 1999 Constitution to institute criminal charge against anyone and discontinue it at any stage, such powers must be exercised in accordance with the provision of sub-section three of the section.  

According to the letter, the group alleged that sub-section 3 states that “In exercising his powers under this section, the AGF shall have regard to the public interest, the interest of justice and the need to prevent abuse of legal process.”  

The group also revealed that “late last year, the Chairman of ICPC; Justice Emmanuel Ayoola cried out that the government through the AGF was frustrating the anti-graft war.    

“It is for this reason Mr. President, and before this aide of yours causes more damage to the fight against corruption in Nigeria under your watch, we demand that Mr. Adoke should be sacked like his predecessor, Michael Aondoakaa since it is obvious that he is already working in concert with the corrupt elements to protect them and their interests just like Aondakaa did.  

“We shall soon embark on street protests to press home our demands for credible candidates in the 2011 elections and for the sack of an AGF whose sole interest is to protect the corrupt from facing the consequences of their misdeeds.”