![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/APC-NWC-reacts-as-Goje-steps-down-speaks-on-opposition-to-Lawan-Gbajabiamilas-candidacy.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMr Tony Orilade, spokesman of the commission, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Orilade was reacting to the takeover of the case of alleged N25 billion fraud filed against former Gombe State Governor, Sen. Danjuma Goje, by the commission.<\/p>\n
According to Orilade, by virtue of the existing law, the office of the attorney- general of the federation has the power to takeover any criminal case at any stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is exactly what has happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The OAGF had on Friday taken over the case of alleged N25 billion fraud filed against Sen. Goje (APC-Gombe Central).<\/p>\n
Goje was until Thursday last week, a contender for the post of the President of the Senate.<\/p>\n
He withdrew from the race after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and immediately endorsed his rival, Ahmad Lawan (APC-Yobe).<\/p>\n
Section 174 (1a) of the 1999 Constitution States that the Attorney-General of the Federation shall have the power \u201cTo institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any court of law in Nigeria, other than a court-martial, in respect of any offence created by or under any Act of the National Assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n
While subsection (1b) says \u201cto takeover and continue any such proceedings that may have been instituted by any other authority or person\u201d.<\/p>\n
NAN reports that for almost eight years, the EFCC had been prosecuting the former governor until Friday, June 7.<\/p>\n
The case, which was before Justice Babatunde Quadiri of Jos Federal High Court II, had even gone to the Jos Court of Appeal over the remaining two count charges out of 21 filed against him by EFCC.<\/p>\n
The Appellate Court is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the appeal.<\/p>\n
When the case came up for an emergency hearing before Justice Quadiri, the EFCC Counsel, Mr Wahab Shittu, told Court that the agency was withdrawing from the case and handing it over the office of the Attorney-General for continuation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Lord, this case was earlier adjourned for June 20 for continuation of hearing, but then we are here today on the latest development on the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe as EFCC counsels are withdrawing from the matter and handing it over to the office of the Attorney-General for continuation with the prosecution.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you can see, in Court is a State Counsel from the AG\u2019F\u2019s office to formally take over this case from us,\u201d Shittu declared.<\/p>\n
Responding, Mr Paul Erokoro (SAN), did not object to the EFCC withdrawal and handing over of the case to the Attorney-General.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Lord we are not objecting to the anti-graft withdrawal and handing over the prosecution to the AG\u2019s office,\u201c Erokoro said.<\/p>\n
Mr Pius Asika, Counsel from the office of the attorney general, however, announced his appearance for the case.<\/p>\n
Asika then applied for an adjournment to enable him prepare for the case proper \u201chaving come into the matter\u201d.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has clarified that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation has constitutional power to takeover any criminal case at any stage of investigation. Mr Tony Orilade, spokesman of the commission, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2830,3,4],"tags":[2106,11605,866],"class_list":["post-125073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","category-news","category-politics","tag-ahmed-lawan","tag-danjuma-goje","tag-efcc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/124191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}