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