The Supreme Court will determine the powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate states. It has scheduled a hearing for October 22.
Sixteen state governments are challenging the constitutionality of the law establishing the EFCC.
The apex court’s seven-member panel, presided over by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, chose the date yesterday after it consolidated three suits filed separately by three states, including Kogi.
The court also granted the request by 13 states to be made co-plaintiffs in the case filed in the name of their Attorneys-General.
The plaintiffs in the consolidated case, marked: SC/CV/178/2023, are Anambra, Benue, Cross River, Enugu, Edo, Kogi and Kebbi.
Others are Katsina, Jigawa, Nassarawa, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Plateau and Sokoto.
The 16 states are contending that the Constitution is supreme and that any law that is inconsistent with it is a nullity.
The plaintiffs contend that the Supreme Court had held in previous cases that it was a United Nations Convention against Corruption that was reduced into the EFCC Establishment Act.
According to them, the EFCC Act, as currently enacted, could not be applied to states that never approved of it.
The plaintiffs want the court to hold that any institution so established, such as the EFCC, should be regarded as an illegal body.
Some of the reliefs being sought in the suit are:
*”A declaration that the Federal Government through the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) or any other agency lacks the power to issue any directive, guideline, advisory or any instrument howsoever called for the administration and management of funds belonging to a state.
*”A declaration that the EFCC, the NFIU or any agency of the Federal Government cannot investigate, requisition documents, invite and or arrest anyone with respect to offences arising from or touching on the administration and management of funds belonging to a state or any local government area.”
