Anti-Corruption War.....FG To Put EFCC, ICPC Under Surveillance : Prof Itse Sagay

Chairman, presidential advisory committee on anti-corruption, Professor Itse Sagay has said that Judges handling cases of corruption against public officers are under surveillance, he said the monitoring will be civil and security in nature...According to Sagay, the surveillance is meant to monitor their performances, professionally, ethically and morally.

Sagay, however, did not reveal the identity of those monitoring the judges...He disclosed that the rot in the judiciary had made the search for the desired upright judges a Herculean task....The sought-upright judges are to take off with the planned trial of alleged looters, while the constitution amendment for the establishment of the special looters' courts is being pursued, which Sagay said could run into next year.

According to him, "with all the relevant agencies like EFCC, ICPC and others, we intend to effectively collaborate with them.

"They have nothing to fear. We are not out to take their jobs from them. All this hostility must stop. We have been vested with the powers to recommend people for prosecution. A lot of people who are supposed to welcome us have been hostile. We are here to make their work lighter. All we are going to do is to increase the investigative capacity of these agencies."

He also did not rule out the merger of the existing anti-corruption bodies, though noted that such move would not be immediate, considering the bodies being creations of the constitution.
In order to further cleanse the judiciary which Sagay said stinks right now, Sagay said the popular Eso panel report and Babalakin review panel report, which indicted many judges still in service up till the Supreme Court, would be revisited.

Debunking the insinuation that he was rewarded with the current assignment for saving Governor Rauf Aregbesola from impeachment, Sagay said he weighed in on the Osun matter because Justice Olamide Oloyede brought judiciary into disrepute...According to him, "Oloyede submitted her claims to the appropriate quarters and nobody is blaming her for this.

"As a judge, you don't bring yourself down. You don't turn yourself into a street fighter who has no care about dignity. These people (judges) have been placed on a pedestal for us to have confidence in them. What she is doing is a show of shame.

"This woman went to the gutter, discarded her robes and effectively walked about naked. She is a disgrace to the judiciary. I am still calling for her exit."

Sagay also disclosed that his committee had not come into any information of a direct wrongdoing by Jonathan, saying that "no evidence has, however, linked Jonathan directly to these alleged crimes but he could be found guilty by reason of presiding over these ministers."