Nigeria Anti-Graft Agency 'Unable' To Ban Corrupt Poll Candidates

Nigeria's anti-graft agency said Wednesday that it lacked the legal authority to stop corrupt politicians from running for public office, saying only the courts exercised such powers.



"If you are conversant with the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, [you know that] only a court of law can ban corrupt candidates from contesting," Ibrahim Lamorde, chairman of the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), told reporters in Abuja.



"We can only advise the appropriate authorities and political parties about candidates," he said. "We cannot prevent them [from running] unless a competent court of law does so."



Lamorde's comments came in reaction to public criticisms of the EFCC's seeming inability to stop many of the country's more puzzling corruption cases and prevent corrupt politicians from running for public office.



"You have to know where the responsibility of the EFCC starts and ends. When we take people to court, our duty is to prosecute them, but some of these accused persons/suspects take advantage of the criminal laws," he said.



"When criminal proceedings are delayed, you start having witness fatigue. Some of the witnesses will have died and some officers transferred," Lamorde added.



The anti-corruption czar also lamented delays in corruption cases filed by his agency, some of which date back as far as 2006.



"We have cases we filed since 2006. We have been going in and out of the Supreme Court because of applications here and there," he said.



"We cannot change what is obtainable at court because the laws of the land allow people to go to court. Some people are delaying cases to the detriment of the people of Nigeria and the affected states," Lamorde added.



"The outcome of these cases would have definitely defined what people will get. The funds to be recovered ought to be used for the development of these states," he stressed.



Many development agencies blame corruption and weak institutions for the challenges faced by Africa's top oil earner and largest national economy.



The most recent Transparency International corruption index rated Nigeria as the world's 31st most corrupt nation.



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