A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, on Sunday called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to immediately remove the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mike Aondoakaa (SAN), from office.
Fawehinmi said, in a statement that Aondoakaa had constituted himself into a stumbling block in the war against graft in the country.
He said, “The current AGF should be removed. As long he remains in office, Nigeria will continue to be a laughing stock in the international community because the whole world is now fighting corruption by political leaders who have bled their people to socio-economic stupor and have made life unbearable for them in the midst of plenty.”
The SAN, who is currently receiving medical treatment at a London hospital, listed eight reasons why the AGF should be relieved of his appointment.
The reasons are:
- He (Aondoakaa) has failed to appreciate the dual nature of his office as both the chief law officer of the federation and Minister of Justice;
- He does not know what the public interest is with regards to the issue of corruption in Nigeria. He has chosen to ignore Nigeria’s fundamental problem , which the constitution has addressed;
- He is deliberately ignoring the command in Section 15(5) of the constitution which provides that the ‘State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power’;
- He does not appreciate the rule of law against corruption handed down by the Supreme Court in the case of the Attorney-General of Ondo State v. Attorney-General of the Federation (2002) 9 NWLR (Pt. 772) 222 which enjoined all Nigerians to fight against corruption and to ensure that institutions set up under the Act of the National Assembly which gives effect to Section 15(5) of the constitution should be allowed to function and not sabotaged;
- He has been unduly castigating, humiliating and vilifying public institutions and their officers assigned to fight corruption by the constitution and the Act of the National Assembly and confirmed by the decision of the Supreme Court in Attorney-General of Ondo State v. Attorney -General of the Federation referred to above.
- The behaviour of the AGF unequivocally demonstrates his bias for past public officers who are now accused of corruption by these constitutionally and legally established institutions;
- He has since coming into office as the chief law officer of the federation not displayed the decorum and respectability of his office, thereby eroding public confidence in his office;
- What the AGF has been doing since coming into office is diametrically against the internationally accepted role of a nation’s attorney-general.
The SAN added that it was regrettable that the actions and utterances of the AGF were not in consonance with Yar’Adua’s promise to rid the nation of social vices.
He said, “Mr. Aondoakaa has never condemned corruption. He has never initiated any criminal prosecution of any public officer. He has never caused to be investigated any corrupt politician past or present.
“Our AGF pretends that he hears no corruption, sees no corruption in a country littered with corrupt public officers past and present. He must be living in a world of self- delusion and self-deception.”
Fawehinmi, who traced the functions of AGFs in many countries, insisted that Aondoakaa was not performing his duties.
He cited the role played by Mr Elliot Richardson, the United States AGF, during the Watergate scandal. He said that the insistence of Richardson that the tapes that indicted President Richard Nixon be surrendered in the public interest led to the resignation of Nixon in 1974.
The SAN also cited the trials of a former President of Philippines, Mr Joseph Estrada; former President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia; General Suharto of Indonesia; and the President of Israel, Mr Moshe Katsav.
He added that these leaders were eventually indicted because of the roles of the AGFs of their countries.
Meanwhile, two SANs – Prof. Itse Sagay and Afe Babalola – have disgreed with three Lagos-based lawyers on the decision of the AGF to take over the prosecution of a former governor of Abia State by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
In separate interviews with our correspondents on Sunday, Sagay and Babalola argued that as the country’s AGF, Aondoakaa had the legal backing to take over the prosecution of cases against any individual or group.
Sagay said, “Everything that the AGF has done on the matter is constitutional.
He has the constitutional backing to come into any matter at any stage as the country’s chief law officer.”
Babalola said, “The AGF comes first in criminal matters. He is the number one lawyer in the country.”
By Tony Amokeodo
The Punch
Monday, September 17, 2007
