The EFCC chairman says his organisation wants to do a thorough job
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde on Monday said that investigations into fuel subsidy payments by the Commission would soon be completed and those indicted arraigned in court.
Lamorde made the disclosure when the president of Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin paid him a courtesy visit at EFCC?s headquarters in Abuja.
Lamorde promised that the considerable amount of work already done in the investigation of the payments would not be allowed to waste.
?The EFCC is avoiding media feast,? he said. ?That is why we are conducting the investigations and interrogations quietly, so as to have a smooth outcome. Very soon, some officials will be taken to court.?
Lamenting the delay in the trial of corruption cases, Lamorde recalled the case of a former governor who was arraigned in 2007 but whose trial was frustrated at the plea stage due to frivolous applications by the defendant. He said such delays are responsible for the clamour for the establishment of special courts to handle corruption cases. He absolved the Commission of blame in such delays, saying the EFCC has no control over the judicial process.
Lamorde urged the Campaign for Democracy to help in monitoring some of the corruption cases in court, in order to facilitate their speedy.
Earlier in her remark, Dr. Okei-Odumakin explained that the visit, the first by her association to any organisation in the country in the last six years, was intended to demonstrate support for the leadership of the EFCC and to underscore its preparedness to collaborate with EFCC in its anti-corruption campaign.
She described Lamorde?s assumption of duty as timely, noting that corruption has become the fastest growing industry in Nigeria. She also called on the EFCC to look into several stagnant trials of former governors indicted for corruption across the country.
