The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has restated its commitment to upholding the fundamental human rights of citizens in fulfilling the mandate of the Commission.

Senior officers of the Operations and the Legal and Prosecution Departments stated this at a joint one-day workshop, tagged "Enhancing the Synergy Between Operations and Legal and Prosecution Departments", which was held on May 27, 2023, at Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja.

They restated their commitment to upholding the fundamental human rights of citizens in the discharge of their duties, as well as improving on the working relationship and synergy between both departments.

In his paper entitled, Fundamental Human Rights: Obligations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Director of Legal and Prosecution, Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, harped on the importance of officers of the Commission not tramping upon the fundamental rights of citizens, while performing their duties. "Given the nature of our work as a law enforcement agency, whose primary mandate is to enforce various laws with a view to combating economic and financial crimes, it becomes imperative that in our daily or regular operations, the Commission’s Operatives, who are out on investigation activities and who daily or regularly encounter criminal suspects either during arrests, interrogation, searches, statement taking etc, are bound to observe and comply with the basic human rights prescriptions," he said.

He cautioned the officers to ensure professional conduct at all times, as that will reduce the number of civil litigations brought against the Commission. He advised officers of both departments to continue to work together to achieve the fulfilment of the overall mandate of the Commission.

In his own remarks, CE Abdulkarim Chukkol, Director of Operations, noted that various departments of the Commission must be committed to ensuring smooth operations and enhanced communication among themselves. He reminded the officers that the general public judge the Commission by two parameters - investigation and prosecution. He therefore said that the meeting, being the first, will now be a model to follow in all the Commands.

Earlier in his opening address, the acting Head of Operations, EFCC Headquarters, ACE I Ibrahim Idris Liman, said the meeting was convened to address the bottlenecks and impediments in the working relationship between the two departments. He further stated that the meeting is aimed at achieving increased productivity and quality output in terms of investigation and prosecution, adding that the engagement will become a continuous exercise.