Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, is expected to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on Wednesday over allegations that he fraudulently diverted over N1tn proceeds from corruption recovered by the anti-graft agency.
This followed a petition to the Senate from a certain George Uboh that part of the money said to have been 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.
Uboh, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert Security Systems, a security firm, in his petition dated July 31, 2015, accused Lamorde of specific instances of under-remittance and non-disclosure of proceeds of corruption recovered from criminal suspects, including Balogun and Alamieyeseigha.
The Senate committee expects the petitioner to appear before it 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 Senate 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”.
“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,” Uboh further alleged.
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