The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), has explained the reasons for writing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, to seek his approval for the Ministry to take over the prosecutorial powers of the anti-graft Agencies .

Last week, the President, in responding to the minister’s request, had issued a directive to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Tribunal to take instructions from the Attorney-General in matters of criminal prosecution, saying such powers had been conferred on the Attorney-General by Law.

Aondoakaa told THISDAY last night that contrary to the General perception on the issue, his request was actually meant to streamline and co-ordinate the prosecution of accused persons by the anti-graft bodies.

“The ICPC recently announced that it was going to prosecute 26 former governors. EFCC is also on the case of some former governors. The same thing with the Code of Conduct Tribunal. now you find Out that many of these cases overlap. Three different bodies prosecuting the same persons with the same ingredient. This is going to be chaotic,” he said.

According to him, he decided to write the President in order to explain the position of the constitution on the “origin of prosecutorial Power ” so as to avoid “duplication and triplication” of efforts on the part of Federal Agencies .

“In the Real sense of it, no Power was taken away from the EFCC and no Power was returned to it,” he said. “What we simply did was to explain the position of the Law. The President has declared time and again that he wants to follow the rule of Law to the letter. To interpret my position as an attempt to shield certain sacred cows is not correct. If anything, my position is intended to strengthen the anti-corruption war which I fully subscribe to. I am not a politician. I have practised Law All my Life .”

The Minister of Justice said it was very important for the Agencies to know that constitutionally, prosecutorial powers belong to the AG as the Chief Law Officer who could choose to prosecute or continue a case in the Public interest.

“It is in the interest of the rule of Law for us to follow due process in All that we do and that is All that I was after. There is no such thing as taking away the powers of the EFCC,” he said.

He denied that the Federal Government later reversed itself, explaining that his clarification was intended to put in ordinary language the implications of the approval granted by the President.

“When people said we reversed ourselves, that again is not correct,” he said. “Let’s put it in simple language: prosecutions would still be done by the various bodies with the full acknowledgement of the supervisory role of the Attorney-General. The Law allows me to Grant prosecutorial powers by fiat to Agencies . That is exactly what I explained last week. No Power was taken away and no Power was returned. It was just to make it very clear to everyone the position of the constitution on the matter.”

Aondoakaa further said there was no hiding place for corrupt officials, as he was ready to team up with the EFCC to prosecute the anti-corruption war with every Resource available.

He had said, last week, that after examining All the relevant laws of EFCC and other related Agencies , “the powers vested in them to initiate and continue prosecution will continue. The reason is that nobody should think that those supervisory powers given to me Are meant to protect anybody. There should be zero tolerance for corruption.

“To that effect, this is the way that I will exercise those powers. The EFCC, ICPC and other Agencies that have those constitutional powers enacted in them will proceed and initiate proceedings immediately against any person who has violated those laws.

“They should proceed immediately without reverting to me in consonance with the relevant powers granted to them by the statutes creating them. They should do it in conformity with rights created under the constitution.”

Aondoankaa had also noted that the important issue “is to take somebody to court promptly, to arraign the person to a court of Law within 48 hours, not to detain the person indefinitely, detain and arraign him within 48 hours. They will continue as if deemed to be granted by me.

“Secondly, in the course of the prosecution which they will initiate independent of me, if I have good reasons to believe that they Are not carrying Out prosecution in conformity with the constitution, we will exercise the right of the Attorney-General under the constitution to take over the case or even discontinue where the facts permit.

“That is, they will proceed with the case as their statutes permit them but they should do it in accordance with the constitution that states take somebody to court within 48 hours. And where they Are carrying Out the prosecution, they should do it in accordance with the Constitution. Where they do not and there is good grounds for me to believe that they Are not doing it and I do not have any reason to believe that they will not do it, they will do it in accordance with the constitution.

“The message is very clear. There is no hiding place for any corrupt politician. I do not intend to create any impediment on the work of any of the Agencies that had inherent powers to their statutes to initiate prosecution. For the avoidance of doubt, I have said that they can proceed as if, except I have good reason to intervene.”