EFCC gives Dangote, Otedola, others 7 days to pay

“We already have the list of the five banks’ debtors with us in EFCC and they have just one week to bring in their cheques or drafts to us or we begin their arrest and prosecution as well as confiscation of their assets because they are people of enormous means,” Mrs. Waziri told reporters on the sidelines of the Nigerian Bar Association annual conference.

She also explained that the anti-graft agency has to go tough on the debtors because of the urgent need to salvage the financial sector from total collapse and also restore discipline in all segments of that sector.

“What we are doing with the case of the sacked bank executives should be a strong signal to all the debtors no matter who they are, that we mean serious business on the recovery of these funds.

We have been doing it quietly before now because we [have] already made some recoveries but now it is time to go full blown with them. No one is above the law and our law is no respecter of persons,” she said.

She reiterated that it is in the interest of the debtors to comply with the directive rather than wait for arrest and prosecution. “I will advise the debtors whose names had already been published by the Central Bank to take advantage of this ultimatum by issuing their cheques and drafts in the name of EFCC for proper and coordinated recovery after which we restitute by returning the funds to the appropriate banks,” she added.

Lawyers at the NBA conference who spoke to NEXT on the condition of anonymity however faulted Mrs. Waziri’s strategy, describing her move as a “sure recipe for legal window to tie up all the cases in court and ultimately frustrate the CBN initiative.”

“What is needed, according to commercial lawyers versed in the prosecution of financial crimes, is to call the debtors to a meeting and work out a plan of payment with them rather than threaten them with arrest and get them rushing to court to procure injunctions,” said a senior lawyer who told NEXT that he has already been briefed by some of the debtors to go to court for them.

“The National Deposit Insurance Corporation has better capabilities in such matters and ought to take a lead on it not the EFCC,” commented a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Mrs. Waziri’s used the opportunity of the NBA conference to speak against corruption. She said, “The bench, the bar, the media and the public are all stakeholders alongside others in the war against corruption.

“Every stakeholder has to play its role within the ambit of the rule of law, due process and the constitution and in adjudicating over cases, the judge must act as an impartial umpire,” adding that “the judge also has a duty of probity, honesty, objectivity and fairness in the determination of the matters before him.”