Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede has tagged most Nigerian lawyers as criminals without which no mega financial fraud, especially illicit financial flows, can be possible.
Olukoyede who spoke at the sixth Annual Criminal Law Review Conference in Abuja, stressed that lawyers aid in the transfer of huge funds into offshore accounts, preferably in tax havens.
“The most traumatic discovery of the EFCC in recent years was the subjugation of national interest and well-being to personal interest by lawyers who aided briefcase foreign investors to fleece the nation in dubious transactions. “The P&ID scam, the Mambilla Power Project, and Sunrise issues are cases in point.”
The EFCC boss said that while the anti-graft agency had had cause to prosecute judicial officers and senior lawyers, his respect for the bench and senior members of the bar remained undiminished.
“However, based on the unique experiences of the EFCC in the prosecution of corruption cases, I am particularly interested in systemic reforms in our justice delivery system that capture the process for the discipline and regulation of judicial officers, the regulation and discipline of legal practitioners, ethics, values and standards of legal practice.
“These are essential to me because the job of EFCC is ensuring that the corrupt do not find space in our national life. When they do, to make them pay for their deeds.”
The anti-graft chief advised the judiciary “to address the issue of obscene legal fees senior lawyers earn from political office holders, particularly the manner in which they collect such fees which clearly conflicts with existing statutes.
“If a lawyer would not care about the source from which a sitting governor or any other public servant pays him millions of Naira to defend him in the electoral tribunal, the lawyer must necessarily be mindful of the fact that the only proper way to collect such humongous amounts is through the financial system. Aside from violating money laundering regulations, hauling millions of Naira of professional fees from public office holders in liquid cash as senior lawyers do is only aimed at tax evasion.
“It is needless to stress that the best act of mentoring from leaders of the bar to the younger generation of lawyers is by living out the ethical demands of the profession.”