BEVERLY HILLS, June 26, (THEWILL) – The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has declared that the freezing Governor Ayodele Fayose’s account by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is lawful under Section 308 of the 1999 constitution and international law.
The Executive Director of SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni, said this in a statement made available to NAN in Abuja on Sunday.
“The freezing of accounts of sitting governors and other high-ranking public officials accused of corruption is essential for the flow of investigation which is allowed under Section 308,”
“The freezing of the account is a preventive measure which is necessary for the conduct of an effective investigation of allegations of corruption involving former National Security Adviser Sambo Dazuki.
“Specifically, Article 30 of the UN Convention against Corruption entrenches a functional notion of immunity; that is, it attaches to the office and not the office holder.
“Under Article 30, states are required to ensure that immunity of public officials is not used as a ploy to frustrate prosecution of cases involving other persons such as Dazuki, accused of corruption.
“SERAP believes without the freezing of the accounts of Fayose by the EFCC, the investigation and adjudication of corruption and money laundering allegations involving the former National Security Adviser may be undermined, which will directly violate Article 30 requirements.
“Similarly, Article 31 of the convention covers the ‘what’ and not the ‘who’. It allows states to take measures to identify, trace, restrain, seize or freeze property that might be the object of an eventual confiscation order.
“One such measure provided for under the provision is to ensure that anticorruption bodies such as the EFCC can adopt provisional measures including freezing of assets involved in suspicious transaction reports, at the very outset of an investigation.”
He added that immunity shouldn’t be available to bar effective investigation of corruption cases including freezing of accounts because such cases are entirely unrelated to the legitimate exercise of constitutional powers by public officials.
“Immunity doesn’t mean impunity and a licence for serving high-ranking public officials including governors to imply that they are untouchable in cases of allegations of corruption against them,” he declared.
Story by David Oputah
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