EFCC: MY Office Empowered By Constitution To Supervise Agencies -Malami

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has explained that his office is constitutionally-empowered to supervise agencies under it and does not need additional powers to do so.

This was disclosed in a statement on Tuesday by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr Umar Jibrilu Gwandu.

“The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice does not need the tinkering of the current Economic and Financial Crime (Establishment) Act 2004 to enable him regulate the Institution and could therefore not, in any ways, seek to sponsor any bill for more powers to control the commission,” he stated.

According to the statement, the AGF is focused on realising the anti-corruption objective of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“At the moment, the priority of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is to see to the effective execution of its statutory mandates of supervising all the parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Justice in a way that makes them function in the best interest of the general public, which constitutional responsibility he is engaged by President Muhammadu Buhari to discharge,” the statement partly read.

Malami also noted that it was within the right of the legislative arm of government to amend an Act, adding that separation of powers in Government was indisputable.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice believes in the doctrine of separation of powers as an epitome character of the democratic administration and could not therefore meddle into the affairs of legislature for megalomaniac sake.

“It is a global practice in democratic societies that the legislature may at their discretion and as deem fit, spearhead the amendment of existing legislation in order to accommodate certain exigencies occasioned by contemporary realities and the need to improve performance to achieve best practices without any prompting from external organs of the government,” it added.

He maintained that his supervisory role over the EFCC and other agencies would continue for the betterment of the country.

The statement further reads: “It is trite to say that by virtue of the extant laws of the land as well as rules and legislations governing the conduct of the governmental operations, the Attorney-General of the Federation hasindisputable statutory powers to regulate the operations of the commissions without recourse to any additional legislation.

“Section 43 of the EFCC Act has made it abundantly clear that “the Attorney General of the Federation may make rules or regulations with respect to the exercise of any of the duties, functions or powers of the Commission under this Act.”