The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said the prosecution of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for allegedly forging the rules to conduct the election of principal officers of the Senate, was still ongoing.
Malami said this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja by Umar Gwandu, Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
He said that for securing conviction on any crime, investigation must be done to establish the essential ingredients of the offence.
“It is a fundamental principle of criminal justice administration in all climes that you do not file criminal charges where investigations have not revealed prima facie case against the suspects and Nigeria is not an exception,” he said.
On the allegation of withdrawal of the corruption case of N25 billion against Sen. Danjuma Goje, he said the first point of correction is that the AGF did not withdraw a N25 billion case.
“The EFCC had filed a 21- count charge of N8 billion against Senator Goje and had been prosecuting same for over eight years without the AGF’s interference.
“Although after a no case submission filed by Goje, 19 of the 21 counts making up the N8 Billion were struck out by the court leaving only two counts bordering on the manner in which the sale of some old buses belonging to Gombe State Transport Company between 2003 and 2011 were handled under his watch.
“It was the said last two counts that the AGF thoroughly reviewed in 2019 and having found no prima facie case, withdrew in exercise of his constitutional power pursuant to Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution,” he added.
He said besides giving the EFCC conducive atmosphere to operate without exerting the might of his office on the Commission, many officers from the Chambers of the AGF are regularly seconded to the EFCC as representatives to work and help the EFCC in the war against corruption meaning that the AGF is part of the EFCC’s success story.
