Former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi and human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) have called for more concerted efforts in the war against corruption in the country.

Justice Akanbi, who is also a former President of the Court of Appeal, in an interview with The Guardian in Ilorin, Kwara State, called for the separation of the office of the Attorney-General from that of the Justice Minister.

Though he commended the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan in combating corruption and insecurity, he, however, noted that the continued rise of the vice had made it imperative to have an Attorney-General that would be fully committed to tackling these problems frontally without distractions by non professional matters.

The eminent jurist said the appointment of an Attorney-General should not be based on partisan considerations and such a person  would deal squarely with corrupt cases, irrespective of who was involved, as he would not be bogged down by extraneous considerations, because he owed its loyalty strictly to the people and the professional ethics.

Falana urged the Federal Government to re-open corruption cases involving some multinational firms operating in the country alleged to been involved in multi-million dollar bribery cases along with some former principal officers of the Federal Government.

He specifically called on the Federal Government to re-open alleged corruption cases involving Siemens and Wilbros.

Falana, however, commended what he called the Federal Government's courage to re-open similar corruption case involving Haliburton.

He further stated that having a separate Attorney-General would make the occupier of the office independent-minded, adding that, "An Attorney-General that does not carry the Minister of Justice portfolio would be independent-minded, he would have nothing to do with the politicians, the office of the Attorney-General would be independent of the political authority, the Attorney-General would look at and handle issues from the prism of a lawyer true and true, who wants to see that justice is done irrespective of who is involved, whereas a Justice Minister would give advice to his boss based on political considerations because he was an appointee of his boss."