EFCC has released a statement reacting to the reported diversion of N1
trillion by the commission's chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde which was
published yesterday August 24th. The agency in a statement published on
its website this morning, refuted the claims, adding that the commission
is not afraid of probe. The statement below..
The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has
been drawn to a report captioned, Alleged N1tn diversion: Senate to
probe Lamorde’s alleged diversion of N1tn, which appeared in The Punch
Newspaper of Monday August 24, 2015 containing salacious claims of
corruption against the person of the chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim
Lamorde.
The EFCC should ordinarily not dignify the publication with a response
as the motives of the promoters and their media allies are to impugn the
integrity of the EFCC boss with fabricated stories of corruption.
However the Commission is constrained to respond, to expose the motive
behind the sinister plot. In the first instance, claims of a N1trillion
corruption in the EFCC is infantile and assaults the sensibilities of
all reasonable stakeholders in the anti- corruption fight.
Even if the EFCC had not returned a kobo of recovered assets in its 12
years existence in addition to the yearly appropriated funds from the
federation account, it will be nowhere near a trillion naira. This
clearly exposes the mission of the so called petitioner as nothing more
than mischief, designed to smear Lamorde.
More sinister is the discovery that the so called petition did not
follow the procedure for consideration by the senate. It was sent, not
to the senate but to a member, Senate Peter Nwaoboshi, a first term
senator from Delta North.
Under the senate rules, petitions meant for consideration by the red
chamber are sent to the senate, not to a member of the senate.
Also, petitions meant for the senate are tabled at the plenary, before
they are referred to the relevant committees for further consideration.
In this instance, the senate has been on recess and there is no evidence
that the so called petition was considered at plenary and referred to
any committee.
The EFCC as an agency that is founded on transparency is not afraid of
any “probe” or request for information regarding its activities by
individuals, groups or organs of government; so far as such requests
followed due process of law.
The EFCC under Lamorde did not need the prompting of anyone, when it
commissioned a reputable international audit firm, KPMG to carry out
comprehensive audit of exhibits and forfeited assets of the Commission
from 2003 to date.
The report of the audit will be made public once it is ready.
Were the Commission to be jittery about its records, it would not have
embarked on such audit.
The EFCC however warns that those who peddle false information with the
intent to mislead should be reminded that there is a subsisting law on
false information and the consequence for violation is grave.
Media & Publicity
24th August, 2015
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