Supreme Court rules on 16 governors’ suit against EFCC today

The Supreme Court will on Tuesday, rule on the suit filed by the 19 state governments, contesting the constitutionality of the laws which established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria.

The state governments argued that the country’s apex 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 plaintiffs, 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.

The argument of the states in their present suit, which had reportedly been corroborated by the Supreme Court in the previous case mentioned, is that the law, as enacted, could not be applied to states that never approved of it, in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.

Hence, they argued that any institution so formed should be regarded as an illegal institution.