Benue Gov Suspends Attorney-General Over Suit Against EFCC

The Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, on Wednesday, suspended the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Fidelis Mynin.

The commissioner was suspended for joining the suit challenging the legality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) without informing the governor.

“His Excellency today suspended the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and Public Order for joining the suit challenging the legality of EFCC without informing the governor,” the governor’s spokesperson, Kula Tersoo, told Punch.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday reserved judgement in the suit filed by Kogi State and 18 others, seeking to declare the operations of the EFCC illegal.

A seven-member panel of justices, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, adjourned for ruling after all parties in the suit identified their processes filed in the suit.

However, Attorney-Generals of Anambra, Ebonyi and Adamawa announced their decision to withdraw from the suit.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-Generals of Osun, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, applied for consolidation in the suit, bringing the number of states to 17.

They include Kogi, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Enugu, Oyo, Benue, Plateau, Cross-River, Ondo, Niger, Edo, Bauchi, Taraba and Imo states.

Kogi and 18 other state governments in a suit marked; SC/178/2023, contested the constitutionality of the laws that established the anti-graft agency.

They argued that the Supreme Court, in Dr Joseph Nwobike Vs Federal Republic of Nigeria, held that it was a United Nations Convention against corruption that was reduced into the EFCC Establishment Act and that in enacting the law in 2004, the provision of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not followed.

They argued that in bringing a convention into Nigerian law, the provision of Section 12 must be complied with.

According to the states, the provision of the Constitution necessitated the majority of the states’ houses of assembly agreeing to bring the convention in before passing the EFCC Act and others, which was allegedly never done.