There was also a dramatic
twist as the Senate committee was told that EFCC and Lamorde failed to remit
N2.051 trillion to the federation account apart from diverting more than one
trillion naira recovered by the anti-graft agency.
Senators under the Unity
Forum of the ruling APC kicked against the on-going probe of Lamorde,
describing the process as illegal and a breach of the Senate’s Standing Orders.
Further, Senate Minority
Leader, Godswill Akpabio unsettled both the anti-graft agency and the Senate
when he wrote a letter to the National Assembly leadership, dissociating
himself and other PDP senators from the moves to probe Lamorde, over allegation
that he diverted N1 trillion from funds recovered from corrupt officials.
Defending his petition against
the EFCC and Lamorde, Chief Executive Officer, Panic Alert Security Systems,
PASS, Dr. George Uboh, asked the Senate to get Lamorde arrested for failing to
remit the money which the EFCC recovered between 2004 and 2013.
Uboh also asked the Senate
to compel Access Bank to bring complete and unadulterated statements of EFCC
from 2004 till date as well as force Aminu Ibrahim and Co, (Auditors) to shed
light on the discrepancies.
Coming on a day Lamorde
failed to appear before the Senate’s Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions
Committee as speculated and his emissaries sent away by the committee, there
was also rumpus as members of All Progressives Congress (APC) Unity Forum in
the Senate kicked against the Senate committee’s probe of the EFCC chairman.
The Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) Caucus led by Senator Godswill Akpabio had on Monday distanced
itself from the exercise. Akpabio said in a four-paragraph letter, which was
jointly signed by the PDP Senate caucus leaders that it was inappropriate for
the Senator Samuel Anyanwu-led committee to invite Lamorde to appear before it,
since such steps in the past did not produce any result.
At the EFCC, Vanguard
gathered that Akpabio’s press statement distancing the PDP caucus from
Lamorde’s probe is causing confusion and EFCC’s move to probe the immediate
past governor of Akwa Ibom State may hit the rocks.
According to records at the
EFCC, Akpabio is scheduled to appear before the commission’s investigators to
answer questions arising from series of petitions against him by an Abuja-based
Akwa Ibom State-born lawyer, Leo Ekpenyong and Associates, that he abused his
position as governor and used the proceeds to build sprawling estates in many
parts of the country.
But Akpabio caused a
serious problem for the EFCC and the Senate when he wrote a letter to the
National Assembly leadership dissociating himself and other PDP senators from
the moves to probe Lamorde, over allegation that he diverted N1 trillion from
the proceeds seized from corrupt officials.
Based on Akpabio’s letter,
the Senate was split over the decision to invite Lamorde while the EFCC was
equally in a quandary over dropping or shifting the invitation to Akpabio to
appear and answer questions based on the petition by the law firm of Leo Ekpenyong
and Associates.
Although the state had
denied all the allegations levelled against the former governor, the EFCC
summoned Akpabio to appear before its interrogators today to clear the air on
the claims against him.
Four aides of the former
governor had been interrogated between Monday and last night, apparently to
elicit some information to use against him today.
A top EFCC source said they
were slightly confused following the letter written by Akpabio, which gave
tacit support to the commission’s chairman.
The source said: “We have
seen what the former governor has done and we are aware that we have invited
him to answer some questions relating to his tenure but we will see how the
whole thing (probe of the former governor) will go.”
Vanguard
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