Why we opted for plea bargain in Halliburton case —Waziri
THE Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Farida Waziri, Saturday gave reasons for resorting to plea bargaining in the $182million Halliburton bribery scandal.
She admitted that the anti-graft body adopted this approach because it might be difficult to sustain the charges against ex-US Vice-President, Dick Cheney and other multi-national firms in court.
Waziri said the commission decided to take this option for variety of reasons, One, the plea bargaining is the latest and best world practice that is being done outside of Nigeria.
She said over N25billion bribe sums and fines had been recovered so far by the commission.
She also said the country’s slow judicial system was another factor that necessitated plea bargain in the Halliburton matter and other high-profile bribery cases involving foreign firms.
She blamed the slow pace of the trial of politically exposed persons and other celebrated cases on the judiciary, and argued that the best way to accelerate the fight against corruption in Nigeria is by creating a special court for the trial of looters of the public treasury.
Waziri gave an additional reason for plea bargain, saying, Lastly, the commission also want to put a stop to this negative attitude of foreign investors in Nigeria coming to take our laws for granted.
But because the impression, or the perception is that Nigeria is so corrupt and that everybody is corrupt, there is no exception, they come in here and then resort to corrupting individuals and corrupting institutions. Contracts are done haphazardly.
On recovery of N25billion bribe sums and fines paid back by Halliburton and other multinational firms, the EFCC boss said, “It’s not just Halliburton but there are others.
Five officials of Siemens were charged to Abuja High Court on a 35-count case of conspiracy, bribery of government officials and the charges arose from cases of bribery of Nigerian public officers amounting to approximately 10 million euros in order to secure telecommunications contract in Nigeria.
On whether the money recovered by EFCC was a pittance compared with fines paid by the indicted firms to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, she responded, You see, we are doing this for the first time. It will get better.
THE Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Farida Waziri, Saturday gave reasons for resorting to plea bargaining in the $182million Halliburton bribery scandal.
She admitted that the anti-graft body adopted this approach because it might be difficult to sustain the charges against ex-US Vice-President, Dick Cheney and other multi-national firms in court.
Waziri said the commission decided to take this option for variety of reasons, One, the plea bargaining is the latest and best world practice that is being done outside of Nigeria.
She said over N25billion bribe sums and fines had been recovered so far by the commission.
She also said the country’s slow judicial system was another factor that necessitated plea bargain in the Halliburton matter and other high-profile bribery cases involving foreign firms.
She blamed the slow pace of the trial of politically exposed persons and other celebrated cases on the judiciary, and argued that the best way to accelerate the fight against corruption in Nigeria is by creating a special court for the trial of looters of the public treasury.
Waziri gave an additional reason for plea bargain, saying, Lastly, the commission also want to put a stop to this negative attitude of foreign investors in Nigeria coming to take our laws for granted.
But because the impression, or the perception is that Nigeria is so corrupt and that everybody is corrupt, there is no exception, they come in here and then resort to corrupting individuals and corrupting institutions. Contracts are done haphazardly.
On recovery of N25billion bribe sums and fines paid back by Halliburton and other multinational firms, the EFCC boss said, “It’s not just Halliburton but there are others.
Five officials of Siemens were charged to Abuja High Court on a 35-count case of conspiracy, bribery of government officials and the charges arose from cases of bribery of Nigerian public officers amounting to approximately 10 million euros in order to secure telecommunications contract in Nigeria.
On whether the money recovered by EFCC was a pittance compared with fines paid by the indicted firms to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, she responded, You see, we are doing this for the first time. It will get better.
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