The Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume has criticized the ongoing probe of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, claiming that there are procedural lapses in the entire exercise.
The Senate had on the strength of a petition written against Lamorde by one George Uboh, commenced investigation through its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, on the allegation which bordered on alleged diversion of N2.5trillion seized funds from corrupt politicians.
Some Senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had earlier faulted the probe on the grounds that it was illegal and unconstitutional.
But while addressing senate correspondents yesterday, Ndume said: “There were some procedural lapses there, but I don’t want to believe it was deliberate because there is no way you can cut corners or use the institution of the Senate to settle personal scores; it doesn’t work that way.”
Stressing that whatever decision taken has to be considered on the floor of the Senate and it has to be passed, he insisted that even if it is a committee recommendation after the committee’s work, the report has to be presented in plenary and a simple majority will have to agree with its content before it becomes acceptable.
He said, “As you must have observed, I am not used to talking about these issues because the end justifies the means. So, if you go and make noise all over, you should know that all that noise will have to be accepted by the majority of the Senate before it becomes anything. So, even if the committee does the work and the Senate rejects it, that’s the end of the report. So, why make an issue out of it?”
The Senate Leader, however, called on newsmen and Nigerians generally to help the Senate and by extension, the National Assembly to concentrate on developmental issues through discussion of ideas and not events or controversial issues.
“Like I keep saying, let us concentrate on ideas and things that will make this country work. These are trivialities. They do not add value to governance and the way Nigeria is. Issues like this can generate these types of opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But like I said, we observed some procedural errors and we will take appropriate steps to correct the lapses”.
He debunked recent media reports that he led some other principal officers of the Senate to the Presidential Villa to beg President Muhammadu Buhari for needed recognition of the leadership of the 8th Senate by the Presidency, saying he has always been visiting President Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his personal capacity even before the APC was formed as a party.
He said, “I am the Senate leader of the eighth Senate. My duties are there: one, to lead the legislative business of the Senate. Two, to prepare the schedules of the Senate. Three, to liase with other committees. I am supposed to be the presenter of all government bills. So, in fact, I’m supposed to be in the Villa almost everyday.”
“My going to villa is not supposed to be a big deal. Yes, there are some issues we had after the inauguration of the senate leadership and all that, but as you can see we have put all those issues behind and moving forward.
“The president has communicated several times to the senate, who did he address the letter to? He writes not only the senate president, but he puts Bukola Saraki. We have moved beyond that. Of course I go to the villa frequently, because we compare notes on bills that are going to come including on this relationship.
“He further explained that senators are even on personal level supposed to be interacting with the president and they have been doing that in the previous leadership and that is what took them there, and of course to improve on the relationship,” he stated.
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