hehehe....The probe of the Chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, commenced as
scheduled on Wednesday with his accuser telling the Senate that the EFCC
boss gave out properties recovered from looters to siblings and
friends.
George Uboh, the man who petitioned the
Senate against alleged diversion of N1tn recovered funds by the Federal
Government, in his oral submission before the Senate Committee on
Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, said that his interaction with
ex-Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha showed that the amount
recovered from the former governor was far more than what the EFCC
declared in its reports.
“We
have evidence of how Lamorde has been giving out some of the choice
seized property and assets to some of his siblings, especially Usman,
and we are ready to produce necessary evidence at the appropriate time,”
Uboh told the Senate committee.
He also explained to the committee how
the incumbent Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, was allegedly
intimidated by the EFCC under Lamorde to stop a legal process initiated
to recover the shortfall of Alamieyeseigha’s money by the Bayelsa State
government.
He urged the committee to compel the
EFCC to remit N2.051tn to the Federal Government, while Access Bank Plc
should be compelled to produce the commission’s “complete and
unadulterated” statements from 2004 till date.
He also asked the Senate to invite Aminu Ibrahim and co, a firm of auditors, to appear before it to shed light on discrepancies.
He said that contrary to the provisions
of Section 36 of EFCC (Establishment) Act of 2004, the anti-graft agency
failed to remit over N1tn, alleging that the summary of EFCC’s monetary
recovery from March 2003 – March 2013 was N497.385bn and that the
agency did not mention where the amount was remitted to.
He also said that the letter written by
the EFCC to the Chairman, House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and
Financial Crimes, in 2012 stated that the aggregate recovery from 2004
to 2011 was N1.326tn without details of remittances.
He said, “How can recovery for eight
financial years be more than recovery for 11 financial years by over
N800bn when the eight financial years are subsumed in the 11 financial
years? Why do recovery for the same years differ on different reports?
“It should be noted that the two documents submitted were prepared under the chairmanship of Lamorde.
“Compare the first two submissions
emanating from EFCC. The 2011 submission is over N800bn higher than the
2013 submission despite two additional years of naira recovery in the
2013 submission.
“Based on the records, because EFCC has
not been able to account for over N800bn, EFCC manipulated the above
records and grossly understated recovery in order to conceal the fraud.”
The Senate committee refused to hear the
legal team sent by Lamorde on the grounds that the EFCC boss had
earlier requested and granted more time before appearing before the
panel.
The EFCC team was led by the Director of
Legal Services of the anti-graft agency, Mr. Chile Okoroma. Okoroma
came in company with Lamorde’s personal lawyer, Mr.Osuagwu Ugochukwu.
They walked into the venue of the meeting about one hour into the commencement of sitting.
The EFCC lawyer had asked for permission
from the panel to react to Uboh’s submissions even as he expressed
reservations over the decision of the committee members to listen to
Uboh without the representatives of the anti-graft agency in attendance.
Members of the committee, especially
Senators Dino Melaye and Rafiu Ibrahim, objected to Okoroma’s
observation and queried his right to dictate to the panel on how to
carry out its assignment.
The chairman of the committee, Senator
Samuel Anyanwu, consequently read a letter from the EFCC, seeking the
permission of the upper chamber to appear at a later date when its
comprehensive annual audit report would have been received from KPMG, an
audit firm.
Anyanwu said the committee would not attend to any submission from Okoroma and his team because they were not being expected.
He therefore asked the legal team to
excuse the committee to enable it to conclude with the petitioner before
determining when Lamorde would be invited to respond to the
allegations.
Okoroma and Ugochukwu, however, told our
correspondent outside the committee room that they appeared before
the panel because the committee was silent on the EFCC letter requesting
an extension of time to appear before it.
Okoroma said, “The procedure adopted by
the committee is flawed. They should not have heard the petitioner in
our absence and they did not also send the documents attached to the
petition to us.
“The committee was aware of our coming
because we informed them. The petitioner should have proved his
allegation in our presence. All what he was saying are pieces of rubbish
and we are highly disappointed in the committee.”
Meanwhile, the anti-Senate President
Bukola Saraki senators under the aegis of Senate Unity Forum, on
Wednesday, declared the Lamorde’s probe by the committee as illegal
because it did not follow the due process and that it breached the
Senate Rules.
The group, in a petition by Senators
Gorge Akume, Abu Ibrahim, Barnabas Gemade and Ahmad Lawan, faulted the
process through which the petition was sent to the committee.
It noted that in a standard
parliamentary practice, a petition should be routed through either a
senator or a member of the House of Representatives and that upon
receipt of such a petition the representative would inform the presiding
officer of the chamber and, thereafter, present the petition in the
plenary.
“Upon presentation in plenary, the
presiding officer will invite the senator/member, House of
Representatives. To lay the same petition on the table in the chamber,
this automatically becomes a public document.
“In this regard, nothing of the sort
happened. Senate proceeded on recess on August 13 and it is not on
record that the petition of Mr. George Uboh, accusing Lamorde of
diverting over N1tn recovered from some corrupt Nigerians, including
former Governor of Bayelsa State, DSP Alamieyesigha, and the former
Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, was presented to Senate in
Plenary,” the group’s statement read in part
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