- Blackmailers after me, says Lamorde
By Chris Iwarah
CHAIRMAN of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, yesterday said allegations that he looted about N1 trillion recovered from former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, former governor of Bayelsa State, late Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, among others, is the handiwork of blackmailers. Lamorde said the blackmailers were recruited by corrupt Nigerians to derail the EFCC.
A statement signed by the Commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren described Mr. George Uboh, who raised the allegations against Lamorde in a petition to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, as a convicted wire fraudster, who was being prosecuted by the EFCC at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja for alleged “conversion of properties of the Police Equipment Foundation.”
The commission, the statement said, maintained “dignified silence over the past couple of weeks, not because it had anything to hide, but preferred to wait for the report of KPMG, the international audit firm which it commissioned in June 2014 to undertake a forensic audit of the record of exhibits and assets recovered by the commission since the creation of EFCC in 2003.”
It added: “The decision to commission KPMG for the audit was inspired not only by the fact that institutional memory had become an issue with the exit of most of the seconded staff over the years, but by a burning desire to benchmark its assets record keeping with best international standards. In addition, over the years, unfounded allegation of misappropriation of assets against the commission has become an attractive weapon in the hands of blackmailers of the leadership of the Commission in particular and the commission in general.”
The anti-graft agency took a swipe at the whistleblower, saying his allegations against Lamorde deliberately lacked details. Most of the allegations of diversion made against the EFCC boss, the statement claimed, were issues that reportedly occurred while he was away from the commission.
The statement said: “It is important to stress that most of the issues sensationally being bandied around media houses across Nigeria, all over the world via the Internet by George Uboh and his paymasters, over which Ibrahim Lamorde is being held personally liable, arose from decisions and actions taken between May 2008 and December 10, 2010, when Lamorde was away from the commission, having been recalled by the Nigeria Police and posted, first to Ningi in Bauchi State as area commander and later to the Police College, Kaduna, as AC Admin.”
The EFFC boss dismissed the allegation that he falsified documents to conceal a fraud of N779,155,004.62 with respect to the N3,037,255,521.60 reportedly recovered from Balogun.
A total of N3, 128,230,294.83 realised from Alamieyeseigha’s assets, Lamorde claimed, was paid into the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance in favour of Bayelsa State.