EFCC LEADERSHIP IS LYING ON N14 BILLION MONEY SEIZURE
I read in Elombah.com a story in which Mr. Lamorde of the EFCC was cited to have said that: “N14 billion being couriered outside the country was intercepted at the nation’s airports between January and August while the operation of a Special Task Team which is a joint patrol of the airport by the EFCC operatives and Nigerian
Customs officers which commenced in September 2012, had yielded the arrest of illegal cash courier with over $9 million.”
The story continued, thus: “The EFCC chairman, … explained that between January and December 2012, the Commission had filed about 353 cases at various courts across the country and had recorded about 53 convictions so far.”
“Criminal procedure rather than judiciary should be blamed for the problem of slow pace of trial of corruption cases”. When I read this sort of posturing, I wonder where the problem is: Is it that the leadership of the EFCC is so unaware of the reality on the ground? Is it that they are deliberately deceptive or that they truly believe that Nigerians are fools that would believe everything one tells them?
I know as a fact that Lamorde is bending the truth so aggressively in the above statements attributed to him. I challenge him to mention the instances of the seizure of money he is citing here. Who was arrested over that? What money was intercepted? We all know that the EFCC has no hesitation in making public spectacle of its arrests and indictments. So, who are the people from whom he intercepted 14 Billion Naira? What courts were they charged to? What are the titles of the cases under which they are being prosecuted? It is cleat that all these are just lies that the EFCC throws around to mislead Nigerians. You would never hear anything about this big heist anymore. Lamorde is just throwing those numbers around to win public sympathy for the EFCC as it faces the day of reckoning with the Legislature determined not to give it all the money it is asking for.
The other claims being made in the story I read by Lamorde are similarly laughable. What about the 353 cases that Lamorde claims were filed in court? What about the 53 convictions so far? It is all absolute fallacy. This is what actually happens with the EFCC: Their operatives and officers take bribes from complainants to arrest anybody, anybody whatsoever. Even when there is absolutely no case, they would arrest. Then they take more bribes and file charges. It is these charges that Lamorde is talking about. Some pretty 353 such indictments. But what happens next?
All but few of these wonderful charges would be quashed and thrown away at the earliest opportunity once the judge looks through the charging documents. As for the 53 convictions that Lamorde is talking about: these are poor victims of the EFCC. They have no lawyers. They cannot help themselves. The process is snail slow. They are in detention awaiting trial longer than the maximum sentence for the offenses alleged. When they can bear this no more, they accept a plea bargain. After all, they have stayed in prison longer than the maximum sentence for the offense alleged. These are the 53 that Lamorde is shamelessly touting as his success indicators.
Against Lamorde’s blatant falsehood, I would give you facts that would prove him to have lied. In Charge No. HAD/1C/2012: Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Festus Olabode Ola, and ors., His Lordship, Justice J.O. Adeyeye, in a ruling dated 19th of July, 2012, quashing the EFCC charges against Senator Bode Ola, held thus: “The question is why did the prosecution go ahead to charge the accused (this Applicant) as contained in count 5 of the information? In my humble view there is no other reason but to persecute the accused/applicants”. (Page 26 of the Judgment).
In that same case, at page 28 of the ruling, the Judge further observed: “Now to the issue of abuse of Court process. Prior to the filing of this information before this Court, the accused/applicants were arraigned before the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti. Thereafter the prosecution filed notice of discontinuance in respect of the charge before the Federal High Court. ……However considering the facts and circumstances of this case, abuse of Court process cannot be ruled out completely particularly when on considers the charge alleging that the accused/applicants failed to register the business premises with the Nigerian Communication Commission when the prosecution had in its possession a letter to the effect that the business premises was indeed registered with the Commission. It is an abuse of Court process to make the accused person face a trial he ought not to face”. Finally, the trial court observed in the last two lines of page 29 of the ruling, thus: “Having regard tot eh processes filed in this case by the prosecution, I am of the strong view that it is a case of persecution and oppression”.
These are the sorts of charges that Lamorde is here misleading the country about. EFCC really thinks that Nigerians are stupid. When I heard that the EFCC was claiming a lot of money in its budget for travel expense, I laughed so hard. You need to know how the EFCC officers use that money. I will give you an illustration. In 2011, three youngsters between the ages of 18 and 22 were arrested in Bauchi for playing an expensive prank on one of their friends. They had mischievously told one of their friends that they had a contact that would give him a job in EFCC in Abuja if only if he could give them N7, 000 (Seven Thousand Naira) to deliver his resume to the EFCC. The naïve friend gave them the N7, 000.00.
These boys went to a cyber café and came back with an acknowledgement letter purportedly coming from the EFCC for receiving the resume. The letter was an absurdity because the letterhead did not bear the logo of the EFCC at all. After a while, the poor unsuspecting boy decided to take matters into his own hands by traveling to EFCC’s office to know what became of his job application. He showed the acknowledgement letter he believed he got from the EFCC. Everybody knew instantly that it was a joke. Guess what! The EFCC’s leadership in Abuja dispatched a contingent of operatives to Bauchi to arrest the 3 boys and bring them to Abuja for fraud of N7, 000.00.
About crack team of three EFCC operatives traveled to Bauchi the first time.
They arrested only one of the boys and took him to Abuja. They returned a second time and arrested the remaining two. They detained the 3 boys for two months in their cells. The boys were so poor and so afraid. When they were finally released, they had no money to go home. Other EFCC detainees contributed money for them to go home. Then the EFCC charged them to court in Bauchi. Each time the case came up, two EFCC officers would travel to Bauchi. The case has been going on for the past two years. Within the period, the EFCC has spent over Three Million Dollars in travel related expenses on this case. The officers like this because they get to spend time in hotels in the cities they are visiting.
And with the power of the EFCC behind them, they are gods. They move around with police and weapons. Local girls are there for their picking. And above all, they get allowances for traveling out of their location. How nice! That’s how the travel budget that Lamorde is asking the Nigerian legislature gets spent. In the unfortunate case of the Bauchi boys, a sensible law enforcement agency would have handed the matter over to the local police in Bauchi and let the matter be addressed locally.
I can give more and more examples of the EFCC shenanigans. The question to ask at this point is: why this massive deception? Why is the EFCC leadership lying to and misleading the Nigerian people? They tell you that the system is delaying cases. But that is not true. I have two cases now where the EFCC are doing exactly the opposite of what they claim.
In one of them, the EFCC granted a man administrative bail, seized his international passport and asked him to be reporting twice a week. The man has been in this situation for two years. They did not charge him to court. They did not complete investigation.
They did not give him back his passport so that he could resume normal live; and this is an international businessman. For two years and nothing happens? The man was finally forced to go to court to seek to end this ordeal. He is now asking for 50 Million Naira in damages for the EFCC destroying his business. There are many more cases like that.
What has become clear over the years is that the EFCC is dangerous to Nigeria. It has aggravated a problem and elevated it to a crisis. For them to continue to go to this extent to deceive the people, there must be a lot more to it. There are hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal bribes being collected by the EFCC leadership under the power system they created. All these lies are to protect that power structure and pipeline.
It is a racket now. It is like a criminal cartel where so much is placed at stake just to protect their
exclusive pool of privileges and the pipeline for illicit money that must be going into the coffers of their leaders and supporters. The sooner Nigerians wake up to the menace called the EFCC, the better for the country. By the way; what does Mr. Lamorde say about his promise last year to stamp out corruption within the EFCC? How have his lie detectors worked? I told you then he did not know what he was talking about. I was right after all.
Written by Emeka Ugwuonye.