Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), MrsFarida Waziri has predicted that the fight against corruption in Nigeria cannot be won except the country repeals inherited colonial criminal laws.
Waziri stated further that the colonial criminal laws did not envisage the terrible corrupt situation the nation has found herself, therefore, there is a dare need for them to be repealed to pave way for potent ones that would help salvage the country and curb corruption.
The retired police AIG who was the chair person at the public presentation of a book titled “S.T. Hon’s Law of Evidence in Nigeria”, yesterday in Abuja stressed that it would be fool hardy to believe that the present laws can wipe out corruption because of too many escape routes for the corrupt people to escape from punishment.
“It is a notorious fact that corruption is being fought partly with archaic laws, the laws that are no longer suitable for the unpleasant situation we have found ourselves,” she noted.
She said, “At the time most of our laws were being enacted by the colonial masters, nobody envisaged cyber crime, nobody envisaged internet fraud and nobody even envisaged manipulation of computer to defraud because those things were not there at the time.
“I use this singular opportunity to call on members of the National Assembly to rise to the challenge. They should give us potent laws that can confront corruption and corrupt tendencies headlong. We must not shy away and we must not spare any effort to review and reform our laws to suit our present purposes.
I charge our legal practitioners too to be concerned with the nation’s archaic laws and no effort should be spared to ensure that the laws are periodically reviewed and updated to meet the demands of the present age and developments.
For over 40 years, our Evidence Act was left at the mercy of crooked manipulations in the law courts especially in criminal matters.
“In reviewing our laws, the National Assembly should make sure that the laws cover all segments of the country”.
She threw her full weight behind the reform of the judiciary being undertaken by the chief justice of Nigeria whom she described as a no nonsense woman and called on Nigerians to give her maximum support.
Mrs Farida also showered encomiums on the book’s author, Sebastine Hon(SAN) for his contributions to law development in the country and urged other lawyers to emulate him.
No comments:
Post a Comment