August 26, 2015 – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) has described the N1 trillion allegedly diverted by Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Larmode as infantile, fabricated and baseless.
In a statement, the EFCC said it would ordinary not dignify the media outfit with a response but that it is responding to expose the motives of the promoters and their media allies.
It noted that the motive was nothing other than 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”, the EFCC said.
It explaned 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 statement said, adding that the EFCC as an agency is founded on transparency and 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”, the EFCC said.
