EFCC goes after corrupt operatives

 •Begins integrity audit of staff •Places personnel accounts under surveillance

APRIL 14, 2012 BY FIDELIS SORIWEI 

Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde
| credits: AP

Worried by the corruption in the ranks of  the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, its Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, has initiated  measures to purge the anti-corruption agency of undesirable elements.

SATURDAY PUNCH investigations show that the EFCC boss has commenced a major probe into the activities of all individuals in strategic places in the commission with a view to ascertaining their integrity and dedication to the task of fighting graft in the society.

It was gathered that Lamorde launched a general integrity audit of all the personnel of the commission, whose anti-corruption ratings nosedived shortly after its pioneer chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, was forced out of office in 2007.

It was learnt that the leadership of the EFCC had also sent away 28 policemen attached to the commission as part of the ongoing reorganisation.

An authoritative source within the commission stated that the policemen, who were asked to go, had been replaced with 20 others said to have been handpicked by Lamorde himself.

  The source said that 15 out of the 20 policemen were members of the pioneer police team assembled by Ribadu and who worked under Lamorde as the then Director of Operations.

Investigations show that Lamorde has established a new unit known as Internal Affairs, which is saddled with the responsibility of investigating the activities and financial status of all EFCC employees.

  The move to reorganise and reposition the nation’s anti-graft agencies is coming on the heels of an allegation said to have been made by one of the directors involved in the pension fraud (name withheld) that he bribed operatives handling his case with N300m.  

It was gathered that Lamorde was jolted by the reality of alleged cases of corruption in the agency considered to be Nigeria’s strongest hope against corruption.  

Lamorde had shocked Nigerians on March 22, 2012, when he admitted openly that there was widespread corruption within the EFCC.

  The EFCC boss had said at a two-day workshop on corruption organised by the United Nations Global Compact and the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, that he was shocked by the level of corruption within the commission he was recently appointed to lead.  

Larmorde lamented that the foot soldiers of the anti-corruption crusade, who were supposed to pursue the barons of corruption, had succumbed to the alluring temptation of money from corrupt men, who they were supposed to confront.  

It was learnt that Lamorde was a nominal Director of Operations without powers.

He had said, “By the time I returned to the EFCC at the instance of the President, I was profoundly shocked to find that many of those I was supposed to send out to carry out the commission’s mandate on certain individuals were themselves enmeshed in corruption.

“EFCC had to do some introspection and we realised that we could ill-afford to raise a finger against the behemoth of corruption if we did not first put our house in order.

“We needed to tell ourselves the bitter truth, which is that the corruption we had been set up to fight, among other economic and financial crimes, had permeated the very fabric of the EFCC.

“I was shocked to discover that the EFCC of today was not the one we worked so hard to build nine years ago.

“I had on my hands a totally strange organisation, one whose operatives responded to a stimulus other than that of patriotic call to service.”

A few weeks after this expression of exasperation by Lamorde, there is a growing anxiety among operatives of the agency.

It was learnt that some of the operatives, who got involved in shady deals, would be  prosecuted although the source did not mention the exact number of personnel affected.  

It was gathered that the Internal Affairs unit was already looking into the accounts of all personnel of EFCC and asking relevant questions.  

Findings showed that Lamorde is addressing the issue of police attachment to the EFCC by ensuring that those to work for the commission are people with the desired level of integrity needed in the prosecution of the campaign against corruption.

 It was learnt that some very senior police officers were making money from their subordinates, who are desperate to be seconded to the commission because it is considered a juicy posting in police circles.

The source said that policemen, who paid money to be posted to the commission, were found to have treated their posting to the EFCC as an opportunity to make money rather than an avenue to contribute to the fight against corruption.

  According to the source, policemen on posting to the EFCC were seen as super rich  by their counterparts, who had been besieging their contacts in the commission to be posted to the anti-graft agency.

It was learnt that Lamorde had taken a decision to ensure that policemen were picked by him to ensure that only trusted people were brought into the commission as was the case under Ribadu.

The source said, “At inception, Ribadu picked those he could trust; you know, he was a policeman too. So, he picked those people who were doing the job while he was going about his own job too.

“Do you know that within the police, people collect money before posting policemen to the EFCC? This even gets to a very high level.

  “This shapes the mindset of the policemen, who are coming to the commission. However, Lamorde has changed the practice. If he must succeed, he cannot afford to pick persons that cannot be trusted and who have a clear direction to go and make money.

  “Those guys have been chased away. He is bringing professionalism and integrity to the fore. Those that the commission could not defend are being asked to go.  

“There is reorganisation, re-evaluation going on; we are not just looking at criminal conduct; the chairman is putting square pegs in square holes.”

  When our correspondent contacted the acting Head of Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwuajaren, for his comments on the ongoing reorganisation and silent probes going on within the commission, he said that Lamorde deserved commendation for the courage to admit there the EFCC was faced with an integrity challenge.

  He would not, however, make any comment on the investigations against the operatives of the commission.

 He said the EFCC chairman had taken practical steps to address the unwanted situation although, he would not mention those steps.

  He said, “We must be fair to the chairman of the commission. It takes courage for a chief executive of an organisation to admit publicly that there are integrity problems within his organisation.

“Beyond that public admission, I can tell you that he is taking steps to address the issue.”

Further investigations have shown that Lamorde is confronted with growing frustration among the first set of anti-graft operatives trained under Ribadu as chairman and him as the director of operations.

  It was learnt that under the former chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, the operatives who were tagged, ‘Ribadu Boys,’ faced frustration as their growth within the system was stunted.

  After putting in seven years into the anti-graft agency, the highest among the operatives is still a team leader with none of them heading a section.

  A source said that the expectations that one of the pioneer trainees under Ribadu could be made the executive chairman of the commission after 15 years of service had become an illusion, considering their rate of growth in the system.

  The source recalled that the EFCC Act stipulates that anybody occupying the position of the chairman of the commission must have put in a minimum of 15 years in a similar organisation or attained the post of an Assistant Commissioner of Police.

It was gathered that Lamorde and those driving the reforms within the anti-graft agency were out to confront a widespread practice within the commission, where the operatives sought for a percentage of recovered funds from victims of fraud and related cases.

  A source said that cases said to be juicy, which involved huge amounts of money, were reserved specially for the police personnel in the commission to handle because of obvious benefits.

An authoritative source hinted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo under whose regime the EFCC was established, had ensured the removal of a clause that the agency could get a percentage of recovered funds.

The source said that Obasanjo had argued that such a clause could be abused to corrupt the agency.

However, it was learnt that the clause was retained at an informal level by the operatives, who received a part of recovered funds, which never got to the commissions’ coffers.

SOURCE: The Punch, 14 March 2012. http://www.punchng.com/