There is need for Expansion of Prosecution Roles, EFCC is Overburdened, Says Lagos DPP

Ugo Aliogo
The Lagos Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mrs. Idowu Alakija, have called for an expansion of prosecutorial roles of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stressing that there are state prosecutors who can handle the prosecutorial roles of the commission, but they are limited to financial crimes as a result they cannot take the duty.

Alakija who disclosed of recently in Lagos, at the United Nations Global Compact workshop on anti-corruption collective action, expressed confidence that if the prosecutorial roles are expanded to States prosecutors they will be able to prosecute.

She lamented that corruption and insecurity affect development in the society, the health of victims, international trade and foreign investment in any country, stating that in order to address the corruption cases properly, there is need for the state prosecutors to play a role, “the EFCC cannot deal with all the cases alone. The EFCC, the Ministry of Justice, ICPC and every Nigeria are stakeholders in the anti-corruption war.”

She stated that the Lagos State government is not only concerned with the enactment of the anti-corruption laws, but also ensuring that the enforcement of these laws, adding that for any society to strive, the level of corruption should be negligible enough to encourage businesses.

“No investor is capable of investing in an environment that is filled with high scale corruption and insecurity. To this end, the state government recently effected the state single account as a means of eliminating fraudsters. The state now has a unified account which makes accountability very easy in order to monitor what is coming in and going out. Lagos state shall continue to work with the business community to ensure that we tackle corrupt practices in the corporate world. The present administration is fully committed in providing the enabling environment for foreign direct investment,” she noted.

The DPP boss explained that the state procurement law which preceded the single account directive was a major law which the state promulgated to encourage transparency in the state’s contract award process, “it is clear that over the years that the issue of corruption and the resultant side effect of corruption have seriously discouraged foreign investors and quite a number of them have left the country.”

In her remarks, the Chief Africa United Nations Global Compact, Olajobi Makinwa, called for concerted efforts in tackling corruption, adding that the private sector has a major role to play in the anti-corruption campaign, “this is part of the second phase of the project on collective action, we cannot fight corruption and get any impact unless we work together. The big scandals involve the big companies around the world.”