EFCC: What future after Lamorde’s exit

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EXPECTATIONS that anti-corruption czar Ibrahim Lamorde, will serve out his five-year term as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) collapsed on Monday. Larmorde, who is due for retirement next February, was asked to proceed on a terminal leave by President Muhammadu Buhari.

When Lamorde visited Buhari on Monday, he thought it was one of the usual official summons from the Presidential Villa which had created intermittent insomnia for him. Lamorde went with a loaded brief on how he upped the ante in the last three months. But in a solemn and dignifying manner, Buhari told him that his time was up in the anti-graft agency.

Later, a soft-landing statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media & Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said: “The President has approved the appointment of Mr. Ibrahim Magu as the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mr Magu, who is an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), is to take over from Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, who is proceeding on terminal leave ahead of the formal expiration of his tenure in February, next year”.

After a 12-year stint in the commission, Lamorde’s chequered and eventful history was cut by Buhari. He had the unique record of being a member of the foundation staff as the anti-graft agency’s director of Operations. He passed through the vicissitudes of the commission with an exile posting to Ningi, a quiet part of Bauchi State and he rose through the ranks to become the chairman.

Why he was removed

Like his predecessors, Lamorde was asked to go on terminal leave ahead of his exit in February. Unknown to many, Lamorde had read the body language of the President that his time was up but his decision to give Buhari the benefit of the doubt was not fortuitous enough and he was beaten to the game.

Sources said he had confided in a few friends that he would like to leave the commission because of some developments, including target pressure and the need to attend to his health. Yet, he did not want to be seen as running away from his responsibility. He felt a voluntary exit might be misunderstood but he was eventually boxed into a corner by his removal. It was unclear if the government got intelligence report on Lamorde’s planned exit, or just acted intuitively.

According to reports, Lamorde’s removal was connected with reservations on his approach to President Buhari’s anti-graft crusade; disagreement over the pace of the war against corruption; security reports and alleged weighty allegations against him; and stepping on sacred toes.

A reliable source, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, said: “The EFCC chairman has been removed following some allegations against him and security report. You know already, the Senate is looking into complaints on the whereabouts of N1.3 trillion recovered by the anti-graft agency since inception. The presidency was uncomfortable with some disclosures by a petitioner, George Uboh.

“While the government does not want to tamper with the ongoing probe by the Senate, it believes it is untidy to allow EFCC chairman to be rubbished. It is better for Lamorde to step aside and be answerable.”

Responding to a question, the source added: “I think the President has his own focus on the war against corruption and the pace at which Lamorde was going was certainly slower for Buhari to appreciate. The EFCC was lacking the required bite.

“Although the agency tried to make do with either the investigation or arraignment of some high-profile suspects like ex-Governor Sule Lamido and children, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, the Presidency saw it as too late in the day.”

Another factor which was said to have accounted for Lamorde’s sack was security report on his alleged relationship with some former officials who served under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

The Presidency was also said to be angry that the EFCC did not take action on Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke until the National Crimes Agency (NCA) in the United Kingdom (UK) invited her for questioning. The thinking of the government was that there were sufficient grounds to prevent Mrs. Alison-Madueke from travelling abroad.

It was also learnt that the EFCC bid its time in managing the investigation of former Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio when sister agencies sent alarms. In a curious twist, Akpabio led the PDP Caucus in the Senate to defend Lamorde when the N1.3 trillion fraud allegation was blown open.

A statement by Akpabio, senators Phillip Aduda and Emmanuel Bwacha said: “ The PDP leadership in the Senate is not against any committee of the Senate performing its oversight duties and or functions but we feel that this is not the appropriate time to embark on this most important assignment particularly since this same action was mooted and has failed at previous plenary session.

“We therefore urge the committee to suspend its public hearing on this particular matter until further notice.”

It was gathered that the Presidency could not fathom why it was the lot of Akpabio and company to come to the rescue of Lamorde at a time there were pending allegations against the former governor, who is the Senate’s Minority Leader.

Image crisis.

The EFCC battled in the last few months to protect its image and that of Lamorde on the whereabouts of the funds recovered from former political office holders.

Besides the N1.3 trillion alarm, there were allegations on diversion of either cash or assets seized from a former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun and a former Bayelsa Governor, the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

The EFCC said there was no diversion of either cash or seized assets. The commission said Balogun forfeited N2, 258,100,516.87 in 11 accounts, including the accruing interests. It also said N3, 128, 230, 294.83 realised from assets belonging to the late Alamieyeseigha was remitted to the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance in favour of Bayelsa State. The EFCC made the clarifications through its Head of Media & Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, against the backdrop of allegations by a whistle-blower, Uboh.

As part of the security report, a petition by a lawyer, Leo Ekpenyong, to President Buhari was also said to have triggered Lamorde’s removal.

Ekpenyong’s petition read in part: “It would be recalled that sequel to my petitions against the former Governor Akpabio’s administration dated 8th, 22nd June and August 3rd respectively, the Senate Minority Leader was invited by the EFCC and after his departure from the Commission, he bragged to his supporters that Lamorde was under his control and nothing reasonable would come out of his investigation.

“It was against this background that I raised an alarm urging the Federal Government to sack Lamorde since it was apparent that justice would not be done to our petitions, taking into consideration the deliberate and unnecessary delays at investigations and possible prosecution.

“During my interview on a guest show (O and M) televised by AIT, I accused Ibrahim Lamorde of having interests in contracts awarded by Akwa Ibom State government. This fact, Senator Akpabio mentioned to me on June 22nd, 2015.

“Ostensibly angered by this allegation, Lamorde summoned me on October 26th via the head of its economic governance unit and for nine (9) hours, battled by compulsion to get me recant my allegation and withdraw my petitions against Akpabio. I stood my ground and maintained that the EFCC leadership was ‘hand in gloves’ with Senator Godswill Akpabio.

“On November 2nd, one DSP Chuks Ibe from the FCT Police Command invited me to answer to a petition written against me by Lamorde. During the course of this interrogation, DSP Chuks Ibe dictated how I should write my statement and personally informed me of his interactions with Senator Godswill Akpabio.

“Consequently, on November 5th, 2015 during my routine interview session at the FCT Command, I was led before the Gudu District Upper Area Court on a malicious charge of defamation and giving false information.

“The excruciating persecution between the EFCC and the Nigerian Police reveals the conspiracy theory involving the trio of Godswill Akpabio, IGP Solomon Arase and Ibrahim Lamorde.”

Sacred cows fighting back

As humble as Lamorde was, he stepped on so many powerful toes while in office. And this enlisted him in the ‘marked’ register of the bigwigs. One of his Achilles’ Heels was the arraignment of powerful pension fraud suspects and some former directors in the civil service and a permanent secretary.

A source added: “No one in this country can fight the pension fraud cartel. The syndicate conspired against former EFCC chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri and now they have dealt with Lamorde. All they did was to deploy their financial muscles to rubbish him.”

For a long time, the dirty fight between Lamorde and a former Chairman of the Pension Task Reform, Abdulrasheed Maina, will continue to be a reference point.

Maina, a powerful force in the Presidential Villa since 1994, was more than a match for Lamorde because he has the ears of the influential ones in the country. Despite allegations against him, Maina enjoyed red carpet treatment at the Villa when President Jonathan was in the saddle. When a former Inspector-General of Police was asked to look for him, he said he could not find Maina, who was even sighted delivering lectures in some universities.

Also, Lamorde’s running battle with a former acting director of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Juliet Ibekaku, and a dismissed staff, Mr. Michael Nzekwe, contributed to his removal. Ibekaku, who was an insider, went all out against Lamorde by revealing official secrets in protest against her maltreatment by the EFCC leadership.

At a point, she said: “In the past seven or eight years since the inauguration of the EFCC, we’ve been hearing about governors who have been in the courts for the past eight years, no conviction, nothing! No assets recovered. And we are still (sic) back to square one.

“So, something has to change. And in my mind, what needs to change is the leadership. The second thing that needs to change is the staffing, who are we hiring to work in this place?”

Another source added: “The crisis of confidence between Lamorde and Ibekaku was dirty. She made many documents available to the Presidency. These are documents you cannot ignore.”

Another cold war which consumed Lamorde was the arrest and arraignment of a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Steve Oronsaye for alleged pension fraud.

The animosity between Oronsaye and Lamorde was traceable to the recommendation that the NFIU should be separated from EFCC. This suggestion created bad blood even among lawmakers in the National Assembly. It was being insinuated that Oronsaye paid dearly for it. In fact, it was alleged that the trial of Oronsaye was a paid back time.

The last war which Lamorde waged was the arrest and quizzing of Mrs. Toyin Saraki, who is the wife of Senate President Bukola Saraki. Shortly after Mrs. Saraki’s arrest, a petition surfaced in the Senate from one George Uboh, an alleged ex-convict. The Senate, which was seeking a pound of the EFCC flesh, did not mind the messenger. It went for the message on EFCC’s inability to account for N1.3 trillion funds seized from convicted persons since inception. It was difficult to separate Uboh’s petition from aggrieved Senators who were backing Saraki’s wife.

What Lamorde did not tell anyone was the pressure he endured to stay in office. When U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria James Eintwistle visited him in 2014, he made reference to this but in his usual taciturn manner, he was not forthcoming.

He said: “Most of the times anything that happens, whether people are at fault they blame it on someone else. Even when there is a genuine case and you go after an individual, they will start saying that he is being haunted because he is this or that.

“It is a situation that is laden with landmine now. We have to meander to avoid stepping on the landmine so that they don’t blow us up. It is very difficult. We went through that in 2011. Sometime when election is coming it becomes very difficult to do anything. We have decided to do our job to the best of our ability with the dictate of our conscience knowing what is right and what is not.”

In-house sabotage.

For being prudent and enforcing discipline, Lamorde had issues with officials, who stoically bore their travails while using their connections to undermine him. Most of the workers were not happy that some allowances received under Mrs. Waziri were either cut or cancelled for lack of funds. Yet, these workers joined the service through upscale connections.

Under Lamorde’s administration, the EFCC could not complete its new office complex, making the anti-graft agency to join the list of MDAs with abandoned projects.

But the media unit said: “Lamorde’s commitment to staff is also evident in the introduction of some allowances and functional staff canteens at the headquarters, the EFCC Academy, Lagos and Kano zones, with plans to introduce it at the remaining zones before the end of 2015.

Promotion of staff, which hitherto was a ‘big issue’, had been resolved by the Lamorde-led management, as officials now sit for their promotion examinations as and when due.

One source said: “Another significant achievement of the Lamorde-led EFCC is manpower development. He had envisioned an anti-graft agency that would operate to best international practice. In realisation of this, he ûrst reviewed the recruitment policy by introducing aptitude tests, interviews, polygraph tests and vetting of candidates’ certiûcates and background, among others. This is in order to ensure that only the best are offered employment into the commission.

“Priority is also given to staff training and retraining, with many employees beneûting from local and international training programmes. The interventions of some donor agencies have been invaluable in this regard. The likes of the Inter-Governmental Action Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), provided grants that enabled ofûcers to improve their skills through exposure to cutting-edge training and global best practices.”

Source: The Nation