Magu: Some lawyers are vandals of justice

Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), wants members of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to support the anti-corruption war effort of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that some lawyers are acting as “vandals of the temple of justice”..

According to a statement issued by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman, on Wednesday, Magu also urged members of the NBA against aiding some individuals and corporate organisations to perpetrate economic and financial crimes.

Speaking during a courtesy visit by members of the NBA to his office in Abuja on Wednesday, the EFCC chairman said that some lawyers had been giving the body a bad name with their unprofessional conducts.

“Society is not served when prominent members of the bar not only take clearly tainted briefs, but even facilitate the commission of crimes by knowingly supplying the technical know-how and later, helping in the dispersal of the proceeds of crime,” Magu was quoted as saying.

“There are lawyers within the fold of the NBA who ought not to be among your noble ranks. Those people are not fit to be called ministers; rather, they are vandals of the temple of justice.”

Magu further stated that the input of lawyers would be needed to successfully wage the war against fraud, corruption and money laundering.

“Law enforcement, just as the judiciary, encompassing the bar and the bench , is a critical link in the justice delivery system of any society.  I dare say that  even when opinions and tactics differ, the interest of the two blocs cannot but converge on the overriding interest of the people,” he said.

The EFCC chairman, who stated that no other anti-graft agency in Nigeria had beaten the record of the EFCC in the areas of prosecutions and convictions, further described the ordinary Nigerian as the victim of money laundering , embezzlement , diversion  of funds and frauds.

He, therefore, urged them to share in the vision of President Muhammau Buhari’s war against corruption, while also congratulating the body for supporting the EFCC over the years.

Earlier, Augustine Oyarekhua Alegeh (SAN), president of NBA, expressed the reason behind the courtesy visit, saying that it was to salute the courage of Magu in the corruption war.

He also stated that the EFCC and NBA need to work in synergy for the war against corruption to be won. He disclosed that the bar’s anti-corruption commission had developed a know-your-customer (KYC) template for lawyers, which will hopefully address concerns over members accepting questionable briefs.