The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has taken over the investigation of allegations of corruption
against some judges in the country from the Department of State
Service.
A top operative of the commission told SUNDAY PUNCH
on Saturday that the commission took over the investigation of the
judges, who were raided by operatives of the DSS following a directive
by the President that the EFCC should do a painstaking investigation
into the allegation.
SaharaReporters had quoted
sources in the Presidency as having said that the President gave a
directive to the EFCC to take over the investigation of the allegations against the judges whose houses were raided on October 8 by operatives of the DSS in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu, Sokoto and Gombe.
directive to the EFCC to take over the investigation of the allegations against the judges whose houses were raided on October 8 by operatives of the DSS in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu, Sokoto and Gombe.
Our findings revealed that the
commission had commenced discreet investigation into allegations of
corruption against the affected judges.
However, the source stated that the
investigation had been made more difficult for the EFCC because of the
public outcry, which followed the manner in which the judges were
arrested.
The operative said it was the
traditional pattern of the EFCC to secretly investigate corruption long
before going after suspects.
It was stated that with the noise
generated by the arrest of the judges, the investigation would be devoid
of the aura of secrecy which is often a major aspect of probes
conducted by the commission.
The source said, “The commission has
taken over the probe into the allegation of corruption against those
judges whose residents were raided by operatives of the DSS.”
The EFCC had invited four Senior
Advocates of Nigeria for interrogation for allegedly transferring huge
amounts of funds into the accounts of some serving judges under probe on
Friday.
Prior to the invitation of the four
senior lawyers, the commission had quizzed four Senior Advocates of
Nigeria in connection with the ongoing investigation of judges in the
country.
The lawyers reported to the Lagos office of the commission and were interrogated and released on Thursday.
An operative of the commission said
there was a strong likelihood that the invited lawyers would report to
the commission for interrogation with effect from Monday.
Meanwhile, the agency has arrested some
directors of insurance companies for swindling their underwriting firms
of millions of naira.
Some other directors were also picked by
the EFCC for illegally acquiring huge shares in the underwriting firms
without paying for them.
The Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari, stated this while speaking during a seminar for journalists.
He said, “I can confirm that one
chairman returned N66m. We have identified quite a few cases like that
and we have stood our ground that they must refund it because these are
shareholders and policyholders’ money and not their personal money.”
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