The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Musa Aliyu, has said that corruption trials should have deadlines. He recently advocated for constitutional provisions that set deadlines for prosecuting high-profile corruption cases involving politicians and prominent Nigerians.
Speaking during an appearance on Inside Sources, a Channels Television programme, he revealed that corruption cases should not be open-ended.
Emphasizing the need for the trials to be concluded within specific timelines, Musa Aliyu disclosed that if Nigeria doesn’t destroy corruption, corruption will destroy the country.
“If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us.
Now, of course, there are those who will say, oh, well, Mr. President, you were there for eight years, you didn’t really kill it. But hey, at least he was right. And look, we’ve got to deal with this problem,” he said.
According to him, a constitutional reform is clearly needed at this point, because corruption trials shouldn’t be allowed to drag on for years when a deadline can lead to a swift resolution and consequence.
Aliyu maintained that EFCC and ICPC finishing their tenures before cases are fully resolved is not ideal.
“Initially I had the view that we don’t need special courts, but now when I have a second look at it, I look at some countries and I discovered that we need it.
Why? Because you need a time frame to finish corruption cases.
And unfortunately, our constitution, the way it was crafted, ensures that you cannot determine the time within which [they] can be finished unless it is stipulated in the constitution.
Just like the issue of election petition, where I stated that it must be put 180 days at the trial.
So this is one challenge, because if you keep on dragging corruption cases, it will take 10, 12, 15 years… Even the chairman of ICPC will have finished (his tenure),” Musa said.
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Highlighting the implementation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on local government autonomy, Aliyu noted that political interference is still a problem.
He concluded by saying that despite the apex court’s decision, implementation has been a struggle.
“Even though the Supreme Court has decided, often now we are struggling to implement that decision. I don’t know how it is going to be done.
And another challenge for the constitution is the issue of state independent electoral commission.
There is a need for the state’s independent electoral commission to be looked at again.
Because if you want to have a credible democracy, you need an umpire that will conduct elections, that is independent, credible, without any interference. And transparent.
We all know what is happening. Every state, when you look at it, you will see that the political party that is ruling that state is the one that is winning the entire election,” he added.
