Fresh reports have emerged that the Senate will probe the EFCC boss over an alleged diversion of funds.
EFCC boss, Ibrahim Lamorde
According to reports, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges
and Public Petitions is set to probe Chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde, over claims that he
fraudulently diverted over N1 trillion proceeds of corruption recovered
by the agency.
Punch reports that part of the money alleged to have been diverted
by Lamorde, include funds recovered from former Governor of Bayelsa
State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; and ex-Inspector-General of Police, Tafa
Balogun.
The report further states: The petitioner, George Uboh, whose
complaint to the Senate prompted the probe, has been invited to appear
before the Senate committee at Meeting Room 120 of the New Senate
Building, National Assembly Complex, Abuja, by 10am on Wednesday.
Similar invitation, it was learnt, had been extended to Lamorde to
appear before the Senate committee the same time on Wednesday.
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.
Uboh, Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert Security Systems, a
security firm, in his petition dated July 31, 2015, accused Lamorde of
some specific instances of under-remittance and non-disclosure of
proceeds of corruption recovered from criminal suspects, including
Balogun and Alamieyeseigha.
He assured the Senate that he would produce “overwhelming evidence” to back his claims against Lamorde.
Uboh also 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”.
The petitioner 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”.
“Lamorde continues to conceal the details of the unsold
properties forfeited by both Tafa Balogun and DSP Alamieyeseigha despite
receiving rent revenues from some estate agents on the said
properties,” he further alleged.