Senate President Bukola Saraki has described as illegal the invasion of judges’ houses by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) last October.

He spoke at a National Dialogue on the Fight against Corruption organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), in collaboration with the Office of the Vice-President, in Abuja on Thursday.

Saraki, who was represented by Senator Chukwuka Utazii, accused PACAC of supporting the use of extra-judicial means to fight corruption.

This, he said, would make the fight against corruption unsustainable.

He said: “In the same vein, PACAC should not lend itself to supporting extra-legal actions if the fight against corruption must be sustained and ingrained in the body polity.

“A situation where PACAC speaks in favour of patently extra-legal means of law enforcement does not bode well for the rule of law.

“The end result of any action of government is as important as the process. The platforms for fighting corruption should not, themselves, be corrupt or be seen to be corrupted.

“The recent so-called sting operation by the Department of State Services on the residences of some very senior justices, some without search warrants, others without any proof of incriminating body of evidence, leaves much to be desired.”

Saraki said that there was a need for all government bodies to operate within their mandate.

He said even though the National Security Agencies Act of 1986 granted DSS powers to act in economic crimes of national security dimension, Section 6(c) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Act of 2004, a latter enactment, had vested the power for the co-ordination and enforcement of all economic and financial crimes laws and enforcement functions conferred on any other person or authority on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

He said: “It is even more instructive that by Section 2(1)(e) of the EFCC Act, the Department of State Services sits on the board of the EFCC and could easily, in their meetings, point out persons or bodies the EFCC needs to investigate and prosecute backed up by the evidence it has clandestinely gathered.

“That sting operation was a needless violation of our laws and an aberration that democratic society should consider anathema.

“The EFCC should have been provided the necessary intelligence to execute its mandate if the evidence disclosed a prima facie case against the justices.”

He also accused PACAC of demonising the National Assembly as a corrupt institution, saying that this would not help the fight against graft.

“Certain government agencies and civil society bodies (and PACAC is not innocent of this), have formed the habit of making a scape goat of the National Assembly as a den of corruption.

“They deliberately cast institutions of state in a non-salutary hue that is divorced from reality. It does not help in confidence building, within government and across the civil population, when institutions of state are deliberately demonised in order to put the shine on others.

“As a critical stakeholder and partner in the mandate given to PACAC, it does not feel right when you mount rostrums to say how badly the National Assembly has performed; how they have left their duties derelict and how corrupt they are.

“Indeed, it is counter-productive for PACAC to do so because its mandate of advising should be given across board to all arms and tiers in order to promote the effectiveness of all government institutions and strengthen anti-corruption measures in a comprehensive manner", he counselled.

The Senate President said it was important to continue to have intense discussions and interactions with a broad spectrum of the populace in order to internalise the message about the perils of corruption to the society and enthrone not only attitudinal changes but also institutional awareness of the strategies to eliminate corruption from the body polity.

He admitted that corruption was the greatest impediment to the development of Nigeria and the bane of the public service.

According to him, the pervasive nature of corruption and the brazen display of ill-gotten wealth had made it public enemy number one in Nigeria.

He said: “For this reason, special agencies have been created to deal with the issues of corruption, because laws that are designed to address escalating social misnomers require specialised agencies to implement such laws.

“More importantly, beyond specialised agencies to cater for them, the political will of the government of the day to regard corruption as an affront to societal cohesion and an impediment to growth is crucial.

“That is why it is gratifying that this government has placed the degree of premium it has on the issues around corruption.

“The scale of corruption in Nigeria is such that it is no exaggeration to say that no enemy of Nigeria, within or without, would have done the kind of damage to the psyche, integrity and ambitions of the nation, as much as what corruption has already done.

“Because of corruption, nations that were our competitors before, have left us far behind in the global index of development. There is therefore need to generate a platform for continuous discussions on the issues around corruption and I thank PACAC for this.”

He recommended that the fight against corruption must be driven by a well articulated strategy, adding that the strategy must be multi-faceted, taking alongside all facets of Nigeria’s political, economic and social systems with each arm or department of government operating within their jurisdictions and mandates to secure a collective stakeholder stage about the fight.

He said deliberately “casting the fight as that of one man, a kind of knight in shining armour, who wrestles with a resisting society, in my humble view, will not secure the desired result."

Thisday