Why Buhari removed Ibrahim Lamorde as EFCC chairman

Yesterday,Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman Ibrahim Lamorde was replaced with Ibrahim Magu and  a statement by president Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said, “Mr. Magu, who is an Assistant Commissioner of Police, 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,”

 According to the Nation,a Presidency source says Lamorde’s exit was conveyed to him early in the day but his exit was handled  with dignity by the President.A source, who spoke in confidence  said:

Presidency says, President Buhari won’t interfere in the probe of Obasanjo by the Senate

 President Muhammadu Buhari won’t meddle in the probes of past President Olusegun Obasanjo and the boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Lamorde, because of his respect for the principle of separation of powers, the Nigerian presidency has said.

 A senate committee probing the power sector has revealed how trillions of Naira was pumped into the power sector under Obasanjo without commensurate megawatt at the grid.

 Specifically, the permanent secretary in the ministry of power, Godknows Igali, had last Monday told the Senate ad-hoc committee probing the sector that N2.7trillion had been spent on the power sector since 1999.

EFCC reacts to alleged diversion of N1trn by its chairman

EFCC has released a statement reacting to the reported diversion of N1 trillion by the commission's chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde which was published yesterday August 24th. The agency in a statement published on its website this morning, refuted the claims, adding that the commission is not afraid of probe. The statement below..

The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to a report captioned, Alleged N1tn diversion: Senate to probe Lamorde’s alleged diversion of N1tn, which appeared in The Punch Newspaper of Monday August 24, 2015 containing salacious claims of corruption against the person of the chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde.

The EFCC should ordinarily not dignify the publication with a response as the motives of the promoters and their media allies are to impugn the integrity of the EFCC boss with fabricated stories of corruption. However the Commission is constrained to respond, to expose the motive behind the sinister plot. In the first instance, claims of a N1trillion corruption in the EFCC is infantile and assaults the sensibilities of all reasonable stakeholders in the anti- corruption fight.

EFCC chairman accused of diverting N1trillion loot recovered from corrupt politicians

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, has been accused of diverting over N1tn recovered from corrupt politicians who forfeited their loots. A man named George Uboh recently petitioned the Senate, accusing the chairman of the anti-graft agency of diverting money recovered from corrupt politicians including former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; and ex-Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun.

The Senate having received the petition which was dated July 31st, ordered its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate the allegations. Both the petitioner and Mr Lamorde have been invited to appear by the Senate committee at Meeting Room 120 of the New Senate Building, National Assembly Complex, on Wednesday August 26th for some questioning.

EFCC set to probe Jonathan’s ministers, aides

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has concluded plans to commence the probe of the former President Goodluck Jonathan with investigations into the financial transactions of his ministers and aides. 

The PUNCH learnt that the Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, had already directed that all petitions against former public officers at the federal level should be forwarded to him to be acted upon. 

Findings showed that former ministers, special advisers, heads of parastatals and those of other Federal Government agencies would be invited for interrogation by the EFCC in few weeks from now. 

Punch learnt that the anti-graft agency would focus on those whose establishments attracted huge allocations from the Federal Government when Jonathan was in power. 

Such ministries and agencies, it was learnt, included defence, petroleum resources and power.