A Senate committee has asked the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde, to appear before it on Wednesday over allegations that he diverted over N1 trillion being proceeds from corruption recovered by the anti-graft agency
The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions is reacting to a petition sent to the Upper House by one George Uboh, who claimed that part of the money diverted by the EFCC boss included the loot recovered from a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and ex-Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun.
Mr Uboh, the Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert Security Systems, a security firm, in his petition dated July 31, 2015, accused Mr Lamorde of specific instances of under-remittance and non-disclosure of proceeds of corruption recovered from criminal suspects, including Balogun and Alamieyeseigha.
He has also been invited by the Senate committee; and will be expected to appear before the lawmakers at Meeting Room 120 of the New Senate Building, National Assembly Complex, Abuja, by 10am on Wednesday, at the same time Lamorde is expected before the committee.
The fraud allegedly perpetrated by Larmode was said to have dated back to his days as the Director of Operations of the EFCC between 2003 and 2007; as well as an acting Chairman of the commission between June 2007 and May 2008, when the then chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, was away for a course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos.
The petitioner, who alleged that the EFCC had not accounted for “offshore recoveries” and that “over half of the assets seized from suspects are not reflected in EFCC exhibit records,” promised the Senate that he would produce “overwhelming evidence” to back his claims against Lamorde.
He equally accused Lamorde of conspiring with some EFCC officers and external auditors “to operate and conceal a recovery account in the Central Bank of Nigeria and excluded the balances from your audited financial statements between 2005 and 2011”.
