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Why Buhari must establish special court for corruption cases – Olulade
Chairman, House Committee on Health Services of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Segun Olulade has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency commence the process of establishing special courts that will handle cases of corruption in the country.
Olulade stated this in a statement issued on Wednesday, while reacting to the recent huge amount of money discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in an apartment situated in Ikoyi area of Lagos.
The lawmaker who noted that cases of corruption and money laundering are experiencing delay in the regular courts, explained that if these special courts are established, it’s function will only be for trying corruption cases.
According to Olulade, the delay being experienced in the corruption cases has been hindering the Federal Government from accessing and utilising monies seized from corrupt persons standing trials.
Speaking further, the lawmaker who is representing Epe Constituency II, insisted that the fight against corruption may not yield any good result until these special courts are established.
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“Since the anti-corruption war began, the Federal Government has not succeeded in prosecuting any case successfully. Instead, the anti-graft agency in charge of prosecution, the EFCC has lost some cases which are in the Appeal Court as we talk.
“A lot of these cases may not see the light of the day and this is also as a result of not having good lawyers to handle the cases. Once the special courts are established, they will have lawyers to handle cases of corruption.
“You will find out that court cases on corruption have been lasting for years. Some have lasted for 10 years, some for eight years.
“For those monies that the government has seized, some of these monies the people are in court, and there is court process in those areas. So, those funds that have been recovered cannot be utilised because they have caveat on them.
“These court cases can drag on for a long time which means that monies recovered by this government cannot be utilised. The special courts would have time limit of taking up cases and trashing them.
“These courts would be expected to complete corruption cases within a period ranging from three months to nine months or maximum of one year and once the cases are dispensed with, the recovered funds would go back to the treasury and then a budget can be done based on those funds recovered.
“We have courts on industrial cases and I don’t see the reason why since this government is fighting corruption, we should not have this special court for corruption cases,” he added.