Nigeria blames lawyers, journalists for spate of corruption

The Nigerian government on Tuesday accused corrupt senior lawyers and journalists of trying to frustrate the war on corruption.

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu made the accusation when a coalition of civil society groups (CSOs) staged a solidarity protest to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja.

He alleged that senior lawyers file frivolous applications in court to delay justice after receiving stolen money as payments to represent corrupt individuals on trial.

"One of the big challenges we have in the effective prosecution of the war on corruption are very senior lawyers in this country," the police chief said.

"Nigeria has been very kind to these lawyers. They went to good schools here when the country was good; many of them on government scholarship," he added.

"But these same lawyers receive stolen money in payment for legal services to represent corrupt people who have stolen from the mouths of our children," he said.

According to him, they represent wicked people who have stolen money meant to build hospitals, buy drugs and equip soldiers to fight Boko Haram.

The EFCC boss also said that corrupt individuals were hiring journalists to abuse the commission and accuse it of not following the rule of law in the anti-corruption war.

He told his audience that no agency operates within the ambit of the law like the EFCC, adding that the commission does not take any action, including arrest, without consulting the law.

Magu emphasized that the days of impunity were over in the country, adding that the commission was being guided by no other rule than the rule of law. Endit