The Senate will next week resume investigative hearing of the alleged N2.051 trillion fraud against Ibrahim Lamorde, chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Samuel Anyanuwu (PDP, Imo East), disclosed this on Monday in Abuja.
He explained that the committee suspended the investigation for three weeks when it first met, by granting the request by Lamorde, for an extension of time to prepare for his defence.
In a chat with BusinessDay, Anyanuwu had revealed that the hearing would commence immediately after the screening of ministerial nominees.
The lawmaker also hinted that Lamorde would be re-invited to appear before the committee to respond to the allegations, which the petitioner, George Uboh, had presented and defended before the committee.
The committee had walked out representatives of the EFCC led by Chile Okoroma, director of legal services, who appeared before it to defend Lamorde before the investigation was adjourned last August.
Recall that the executive director, Panic Alert Security System, George Uboh, had alleged that the anti-graft agency under Lamorde had diverted recovered stolen funds amounting to N2.051 trillion.
According to him, on naira recoveries alone, “In a December 2, 2011, letter EFCC sent to the chairman, House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, EFCC stated that the aggregate recoveries from 2004 to 2011 (8 financial years) was N1,326,754,554,482:80. EFCC did not mention where the N1.3 trillion recovered was remitted. EFCC’s claim that it did not recover up to a trillion is complete false.”
He gave the breakdown as follows: 2004 – N7,070,693,130:00; 2005 – N965,651,737,039:00; 2006 – N6,622,261,783:79; 2007 – N7,700,150,381:20; 2008 – N18,141,628,546:98; 2009 – N130,885,187,726:83; 2010 – N52,877,464,867:00, and 2011-N137,805,431,008:08.
He added that, “in EFCC’s ‘Summary of EFCC Monetary Recoveries 2003-March, 2013’ (11 financial years), EFCC stated that the aggregate recoveries for 11 financial years is N497,385,427,485:63; EFCC did not mention where the N497.3 Billion recovered was remitted to, going by the following breakdown – 2003 – N974,783,213:06; 2004 – N21,018,557,263:28; 2005 – N71,053,996,008:60; 2006 – N8,199,908,189:03; 2007 – N41,479,032,319:70; 2008 – N44,542,822,622:30; 2009 – N255,306,693,033:55; 2010 – N10,559,513,355:91; 2011- N11,117,460,717:88; 2012 – N27,844,769,688:19, and 2013 -N5,287,891,074:13.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE
