The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has blamed the media for his recent face-off with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and its boss, Ibrahim Magu.
Malami heaped the blame on the media on Tuesday shortly after he established an Investigation Unit in the Federal Ministry of Justice with a mandate to investigate “sensitive and important cases”.
Malami had faulted Magu over prosecution of high profile cases, saying shallow investigation was a major reason why some cases were thrown out by the courts.
On Tuesday, Malami said the new unit that was established in the Ministry of Justice will henceforth “coordinate and form part of every investigation in Nigeria”.
He said establishing the new unit 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, did not state which of the prosecuting agencies will have its pending court cases taken over by the new unit.
Apart from the EFCC, other prosecuting agencies under the AGF’s supervision include the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, Department of State Services, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and the Nigerian Police Force.
Malami said: “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.”
Malami said the core function/mandate of the unit would equally involve giving advice, beforehand, to every security agency carrying out investigation on the best lawful and admissible means of such investigation for effective prosecution thereafter.
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