Against the backdrop of alleged diversion of N1 trillion recovered funds, the immediate past chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, will tomorrow appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions tomorrow, to answer questions on the petition against him by Dr. George Uboh.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who disclosed this to Blueprint, said according to the committee’s schedule, Lamorde was billed to appear before the Committee tomorrow.
Lamorde was earlier to appear before the committee on Tuesday, last week, but the meeting was suspended without any reason.
Also, the former EFCC boss was on the same day asked to proceed on terminal leave, a development which might not be unconnected to his inability to appear before the committee.
Anyanwu said earlier that Lamorde’s appearance was put on hold as earlier rescheduled “because the period fell within the annual recess of the National Assembly.”
He stated that during that period, some members of the committee embarked on trips out of Abuja and some went for Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
During the first meeting of the committee on the matter on August 26, when the petitioner, Dr. Uboh, made submissions on his petition, officials of the EFCC, led by the Director of Legal Services, Mr. Chile Okoroma, were asked to leave the hearing venue at the National Assembly, sequel to Lamorde’s request for extension of time.
Okoroma was accompanied to the hearing by Lamorde’s personal lawyer, Mr. Ugochukwu Osuagwu, who had been assigned by the then EFCC chairman to stand in for him.
After listening to the submissions of the petitioner against the former EFCC boss, Okoroma accused the Senate committee of violating the procedure on the conduct of public hearing on public petitions.
The lawyer also condemned the decision of the committee to listen to the submissions of the petitioner in the absence of the accused, alleging that it breached the principle of fair hearing.
“It is very wrong for a petitioner to be heard publicly in the absence of the person the petition is against,” he said.
One of the reasons Lamorde sought extension of time then was the absence of the comprehensive annual audit report of the EFCC from KPMG, an audit firm handling the auditing of the Commission.
