ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Senate has vowed to continue with the ongoing investigation of alleged diversion of N2 trillion worth of seized funds and assets from corrupt politicians by the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde, despite stiff opposition in some quarters.
Chairman, Senate Ad hoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Dino Melaye, explained during a chat with newsmen at the weekend that there is nothing wrong with the committee probing the allegations against the anti-graft agency to its logical conclusion.
Melaye, who said there was no procedural error in the probe as being alleged by some of his colleagues, explained that a Senator may decide to submit a petition from a member of his or her senatorial district in plenary or to Senate President directly.
“There is no procedural error in the EFCC’s probe, because how petition can be submitted had already been stated in Senate’s standing rules and the one upon which Lamorde is being probed by the relevant Senate Committee was routed through one of the provisions of the rules,” he said.
Chief Executive of Panic Alert Security Systems, a security firm, Dr George Uboh, had petitioned the Senate, accusing Lamorde of under-remittance and non-disclosure of proceeds of corruption recovered from criminal suspects, including Ex-governor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Alamieyesigha, and former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun.
Uboh, in the petition dated July 30, 2015, also alleged that the agency has not accounted for “offshore recoveries” and that “over half of the assets seized from suspects are not reflected in EFCC exhibit records.”
The fraud allegedly perpetrated by Larmode was said to have dated back to his days as Director of Operations in the agency between 2003 and 2007 as well as an acting Chairman of the commission between June 2007 and May 2008, when the pioneer chairman of the anti-graft agency, Nuhu Ribadu, was away for a course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, Jos.
The petitioner had told the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions during a public hearing, weeks back, made submissions on the allegations while Lamorde sought for extension of his date of appearance before the committee.
However, a group of senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the aegis of Senate Unity Forum (SUF) said Lamorde’s probe by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions is illegal and a breach of the Senate Standing Rules.
“In a standard parliamentary practice, a petition is routed through either a senator or a member of the House of Representatives. Upon receipt of such petition, the representatives will inform the presiding officer of the chamber and, thereafter, present the petition in the plenary,” it stated.
In a statement signed by Senators Ahmed Lawman, George Akume, Abu Ibrahim and Barnabas Gemade, the group stated: “Upon presentation in plenary, the presiding officer will invite the senator/House Representative to lay the petition on the table in the chamber, which automatically becomes public document ”.
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) principal officers in the Senate through a joint statement issued by the Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio; Deputy Minority Leader, Phillip Aduda; Minority Whip, Emmanuel Bwacha and Deputy Minority Whip, Abiodun Olujimi kicked against the probe, saying it violated the procedures of the Senate.
“This is not the appropriate time for such a sensitive assignment, more so, when a similar move to that effect on the floor of the Senate recently failed,” they argued.
Similarly, the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, also kicked against the probe on grounds of procedural errors.
Ndume at a press briefing in the heat of the committee’s public hearing session over the weighty allegations against Lamorde’s by Uboh, said: “I think there were some procedural lapses there, but I don’t want to believe it was deliberate because there is no way you can cut corners or use the institution of the Senate to settle personal scores, it doesn’t work that way.
“After all, whatever decision you take has to be considered on the floor of the Senate and it has to be passed. So even if it is a committee recommendation, after the committee works, the report has to be presented in plenary and a simple majority will have to agree with its content before the report becomes acceptable.
“As you must have observed, I’m not used to talking about these issues; because the end justifies the means. So, if you go and make noise all over, you should know all that noise will have to be accepted by the majority of the Senate before it becomes anything.
“So even if the committee does the work and the Senate rejects it, that’s the end of the report. So, why make an issue out of it?”
However, the Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, said the actions of his colleagues against the exercise were based on misinformation.
He told newsmen in Abuja that the Senators confused his committee’s invitation to Lamorde to a failed one earlier moved on the floor of the Senate in form of an amendment to a prayer in a motion.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
