AGF re-opens corruption cases against 30 ex-APC, PDP Governors
This indication emerged as the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abukakar Malami, has ordered the reopening of corruption cases for which they were earlier investigated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission.
Sources in the ICPC confirmed to The PUNCH on Monday that the ICPC had last week, received a letter to that effect from the office of the AGF.
According to the newspaper, affected personalities, served as governors under (now) All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, either one or two terms between 1999 and 2015, and are from all the six geopolitical zones in the country.
A former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who was convicted in the United Kingdom for fraud-related charges and still serving his prison terms, will face further probe.
Those to be charged are two former governors from the South-South.
Five of the former governors are from the South-East, and three from the South-West.
Others are six from the North-West; six from the North-East, and eight from the North-Central.
The AGF’s letter indicated that the cases against some of the former governors had been investigated some years ago but charges were never filed against them.
The letter partly read, “It is clear that some of these governors and other politically-exposed persons have not been charged to court despite the fact that the ICPC has concluded their investigations concerning allegations levelled against them for one reason or the other.
“It is the position of the present administration that all ex-governors that the ICPC had long concluded investigations into the various allegations levelled against them should be immediately prosecuted.”
The letter also gave the Chairman of the ICPC a 14-day ultimatum to “remit the duplicate case files concerning the politically-exposed persons investigated by the ICPC over the years” to the office of the AGF.
The letter indicated that this was in the exercise of the powers vested in the AGF by Section 174(1) of the Constitution as well as sections 105 (3) and 106 (a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
The AGF’s letter also requested files of other high-profile cases involving politically-exposed persons.
The AGF letter defines high-profile cases as cases “involving alleged misconduct amounting to economic sabotage; involving complex financial transactions or property movement; involving any of the suspects, who is a politician, a public officer or judicial officer; and where the subject matter involves government or corruption of its official or involves the abuse of office.”
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