Malami dismisses ‘rift’ with Magu as he launches new investigation unit

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said the reported rift between him and the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, was blown out of proportion by the media, citing negative reports.

Malami made these comments Tuesday shortly before he launched the Investigation Unit in the Federal Ministry of Justice, with a mandate to investigate “sensitive and important cases”.

Despite his dismissal of reports of the alleged rift over prosecution of high-profile cases, Malami admitted that weak investigation was a major reason why some cases were thrown out by the courts.

In response, he said that the new unit that was established in the Ministry of Justice will henceforth “coordinate and form part of every investigation in Nigeria”, saying the move became necessary in view of apparent lack of “legal expertise in the conduct and process of investigations by the various security agencies in Nigeria”.

The AGF insisted that the new unit would address those anomalies that not only led to frequent loss of court cases by the prosecuting agencies, but equally the “consistent rejection of vital/relevant evidence of the course of prosecution.”

Malami however refused to specify the agencies whose pending court cases may likely be taken over by the new unit.

Read also: #QUITNOTICE: We couldn’t arrest Arewa youths because of ‘security implications’- Malami

Apart from the EFCC, other prosecuting agencies directly under the AGF’s supervision include the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Department of State Services (DSS), the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Person (NAPTIP), as well as the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).

Malami launched the new unit, thus: “Consequent upon want of expertise in the conduct and process of investigations by various security agencies in Nigeria and the need to address such anomalies leading to consistent rejection of vital/relevant evidence in the course of prosecution and or the writing down of the probative value of such evidence owing to inappropriate investigation, my office as a result, and in line with the constitutional powers conferred on me as the chief law officer of the federation and by virtue of section 105 (1) and (3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, hereby deem it fit to establish an Investigation Unit within the ministry.

“This unit shall coordinate and form part of every investigation in Nigeria for robust investigation and successful prosecution of such cases.”

He stated that the core mandate of the unit involved giving advice to any security agencies carrying out investigation on the best lawful and admissible means of such investigation for effective prosecution thereafter.

Also, the AGF revealed that his ministry successfully concluded a total of 296 terrorism cases within the period of 2015 and 2016, while a total of 6646 criminal cases ranging from oil theft, culpable homicide, rape armed robbery, unlawful possession of arms, murder among others were equally concluded.

 

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