The Ogun State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade, SAN, has criticised ongoing media reports alleging that Ogun State is contesting the legality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Supreme Court.
In a statement issued on Monday, Ogungbade said he was surprised over the media’s repeated claims linking Ogun State to the legal challenge against the EFCC’s constitutionality.
Ogungbade clarified, “We don’t have a suit against the EFCC and have never filed any action questioning its constitutionality. Last week, we issued a statement to clarify that Ogun State is not part of the case filed by some states at the Supreme Court challenging the EFCC’s existence.”
While Ogungbade acknowledged the rights of other states to bring cases before the court, he said that the documents filed by Ogun State are public and accessible.
The Commissioner stated, “We don’t have a suit against the EFCC. We have never filed any action against the EFCC challenging its constitutionality. We already issued a statement to that effect last week clarifying that we never had any suit attacking the EFCC’s constitutionality and that we did not join the suit filed at the Supreme Court by some other states in that regard.
“We respect the decisions of the states that have filed such a challenge,
as it is their right to approach the court. That is allowed in a democracy and in a federation.
“But the documents we have filed are public records open to scrutiny, so I am surprised that some media outlets are still running reports that include and mention Ogun State as one of the states challenging the EFCC’s existence when that is not the case.
“I hope that such outlets will be guided by this clarification, as well as our statement from last week, to present the correct position.”
News About Nigeria reports that this clarification follows recent news of other states retracting their involvement in the EFCC challenge.
At least five states have withdrawn their cases, and the Governor of Benue State suspended the Attorney-General there for unilaterally joining the challenge without gubernatorial approval.
