Senior attorney and former NBA President Olisa Agbakoba claims that Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the new Attorney General of the Federation, has urgent obligations that need to be completed.
With particular reference to what he called “the utter confusion in the duplicated work of the nation’s law enforcement agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Crimes Commission, ICPC,” Agbakoba stated that there is an urgent need to reform the criminal justice system.
This is despite the fact that he expressed confidence in the new Justice Minister’s and Attorney General of the Federation’s competence to carry out his new duties.
Agbakoba, who also praised Fagbemi as a superb colleague, stated that he is confident that Fagbemi will find jobs to be straightforward.
According to the xandertech, President Bola Tinubu swore in a number of ministers on Monday, including Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
The legal expert, however, stated in a post on his social media account X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday that he believes the EFCC should be separated and limited to conducting investigations while a new National Prosecution Agency should be established.
He thought that a substantial overhaul of the nation’s outmoded laws would go hand in hand with a total decentralization of the Police Force at the municipal, state, and federal levels.
Urgent tasks for the federation’s attorney general, he wrote.
“The next Attorney General of the Federation must immediately complete important tasks. The criminal justice system urgently needs major reforms, with a focus on the complete chaos caused by the duplication of effort on the part of our law enforcement agencies, particularly EFCC and ICPC. Additionally, the EFCC must be debundled and given sole investigative authority while a new National Prosecution Agency is set up.
“A truly decentralized Police Force at the local, state, and federal levels would be another important reform. We urgently need to update our antiquated legislation in order to follow Rwanda’s lead, which changed 1,000 of them. The AGF must concentrate on Speed of Justice last but not least. It’s a terrible tragedy that cases from the High Court to the Supreme Court might drag on for more than 15 years.
The superfluous and completely ineffective matter of overcentralizing our superior courts will be the Attorney General’s other crucial responsibility. There has never been a better time than now to undermine Nigeria’s heavily centralized court institutions.
To establish a system of Federal and State Courts, the AGF is requested to examine significant constitutional revisions. State Courts should have sole authority over things pertaining to them. This is likewise true of federal courts, whose authority must be restricted to matters involving the federal government. By doing this, the Supreme Court will become the policy court it should have been from the beginning and the clutter will be cleared away.
We are fortunate to have Lateef Fagbemi SAN as our Attorney General. I have no doubt that he will find this assignment to be easy. In addition to being a great colleague, he is also someone in whose abilities I have the utmost faith.