N1t fraud: Senate suspends Lamorde’s probe indefinitely

The Senate on Monday suspended indefinitely the ongoing probe of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, over alleged diversion of N1 trillion belonging to the Commission.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions‎, Senator Sam Anyawu, had last week said the anti-graft boss would appear before the Senate on Tuesday.

However, ‎the Clerk to the Committee, Freedom Osolo, in statement on Monday, said the hearing, slated forTuesday, has been postponed for the time being.

The statement reads: “I regret to inform you that hearing of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions slated for Tuesday, 10th November, 2015 has been postponed for the time being. You will be duly informed when the meeting is rescheduled, please.

“The Committee regrets any inconveniences the postponement would have caused you.”

It could be recalled that Lamorde ran into trouble water with the Senate when the anti-graft boss invited Toyin, the wife of the President of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, to respond to some allegations raised against her while she was the First Lady of Kwara between 2003 and 2011.

In obvious retaliation, the Senate summoned Lamorde to respond to alleged diversion of N1 trillion proceeds belonging to the EFCC as alleged by one Gorge Uboh.

Uboh, the Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert Security Systems, a security firm, had in his petition dated July 31, 2015, accused Lamorde of some specific instances of under-remittance and non-disclosure of proceeds of corruption recovered from criminal suspects, including a former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, and a late Governor of Bayelsa State, Dipreye Alamieyeseigha.

He told the Senate that he would produce “overwhelming evidence” to back his claims against Lamorde.

Uboh also alleged that the EFCC had not accounted for “offshore recoveries” and that “over half of the assets seized from suspects are not reflected in EFCC exhibit records”.

Uboh further revealed his findings and interaction with Alamieyeseigha showed that the amount recovered from the former governor was far more than what the EFCC declared in its reports.