The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, notes with dismay, the views attributed to Mallam Garba Shehu, Director, Media and Publicity, of the Mohammadu Buhari Campaign Organization, accusing the leadership of the Commission, EFCC, of alleged corruption and insensitivity to staff welfare.

Garba who spoke to journalists in Abuja yesterday claimed President Goodluck Jonathan has reduced the EFCC to a toothless bulldog which could not even bark.

It is regrettable that Shehu, a spokesperson of a leading Presidential candidate will call the media to disparage a national agency that epitomize the nation’s fight against corruption.

Were his views based on facts, it would not have been disturbing. The tragedy is that Shehu choose to amplify gossips, garnished with outright fabrication, to score cheap political points. The charges are particularly galling against the well advertised commitment of the EFCC not to be dragged into the political fray ahead of the general elections.

If Shehiu has issues with the fight against corruption under President Jonathan, there are other ways of selling his party to the electorate rather than maligning the EFCC.

For the avoidance of doubt, there is no truth whatsoever in the claim by Shehu that, the EFCC ”Chairman is accused by staff of corruption. The Commission staff is also being owed salaries and entitlements, having not been paid for three months”.

The EFCC is alarmed by this claim. The chairman of the Commission is respected in the law enforcement circles for his integrity and professionalism. He values his reputation which he built over the years and, it will be a great disservice to seek to rubbish him on the altar of politics. There is no evidence of corruption, either in the past or present, against the EFCC chair.

Furthermore the claim that staff of the EFCC are being owed three months salaries is the figment of Shehu’s imagination. In the eleven years of its existence as an organization the EFCC has never defaulted in meeting its monthly obligations to staff. Who are the EFCC staff being owed salaries? We challenge Shehu to name names.

Shehu also makes an issues of the conviction record of the EFCC. At a time when the rest of the world are commending the agency for recording 126 convictions in 2014, Shehu elected to dampen its morale with a disclaimer that is not based on fact. His claim that the EFCC has not recorded a single high profile conviction under President Jonathan is mischief taken too far. Only those who are not living in Nigeria will believe such hogwash.

As spokesperson to the respected General, Shehu must be careful not to mask his personal views as those of General Buhari or the APC. We find it hard to believe that the views expressed by Shehu are those of Buhari or the All Progressives Congress.

For those who care to know, Shehu has over the years nursed a grudge against the EFCC and takes every available opportunity to attack the Commission. Yesterday’s briefing is not the first of such attack by Shehu on the EFCC, Will it be the last?

Evidently, Shehu has been scavenging for information to tar the EFCC. How else will one respond to his allusion to turmoil in the EFCC? Were he not up to mischief, he ought to be discerning enough to cross check information mopped from the gutter press before elevating them to the pedestal of truth. Obviously what emerged as turmoil to Shehu is the gossip in online media about a supposed rift between the EFCC chair, Lamorde and the Secretary to the Commission, Emmanuel Adegboyega Aremo. The EFCC has refused to respond to the gossips because they are unfounded.

But the Commission is constrained to respond in the interest of members of the public who may have been mislead into believing the inanities and outright fabrications as representation of the state of affair in the EFCC. More importantly, this rebuttal is intended to forestall the objective of the authors of the satanic article which is to create disaffection among the staff and management of the Commission and distract it from its primary mandate of fighting corruption, especially at this delicate moment in the political life of our nation

For the avoidance of doubt, there is no truth whatsoever in the allusion to imaginary rift between the two most senior officers of the agency: the Executive Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde and the Secretary to the Commission, Emmanuel Adegboyega Aremo. Both officers enjoy harmonious working relationship which is reflected in the commendable performance of the Commission in recent time. They also have no marked differences in terms of the direction and vision of the agency. Those who seek to drive a wedge between them have ulterior motives that are far from altruistic

The attempt to dress Aremo in the borrowed garb of chief advocate for employee interest and Lamorde as a taskmaster who is insensitive to staff welfare is uncharitable. According to the authors of the article, “The EFCC Secretary has been battling the Management of the Commission, especially the Executive Chairman and the Director of Finance and Account on issues of unpaid allowances and welfare. The Secretary Mr. Aremo Emmanuel Adegboyega has refused going with them for Budget defence, arguing that until the Management pay staff their allowances,. So they thought he was in need of money, they now credited his account with his own 25 percent of the allowance “

This is complete bunkum. Aremo was present at the budget defence before both chambers of the National Assembly. Indeed, when the Commission appeared before the senate Committee on Drugs, Finacial Crimes and Anticorruption, Lamorde invited him to respond to a question that a member of the Committee asked on the matter of appeal against the injunction secured by a former governor of River state, that has more or less conferred on him immunity from investigation. Does this convey the situation of a man who was so nonplussed about employees mistreatment that he revolted by refusing to join the budget defence team?

Again, though the Commission is proud of Aremo’s pedigree as a lawyer, it will be immodest to accept the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, which the hack writer awarded the Secretary to the Commission. He is not a senior advocate and will wait to earn his stripes in God’s appointed time. The lie about him being an SAN, invariably expose as another lie, the claim that he publicly exclaimed that he had been so comfortable as a senior advocate to be bought over by a sudden payment of 25 percent allowance into his account. What was the “”allowance” meant for, that Aremo supposedly asked them to come and take away their money?

The narration is so infantile that it exposes the state of mind of the author. It is inconceivable that an occupant of the exalted office of Secretary to the Commission will use the indecorous language ascribed to Aremo in the article. He was said to have been so nonplussed about the so called 25 percent payment that he said, “” they should come and remove their money from his account”. Haba! In any case, it serves no use to dwell on this hogwash as there was no such payment in the first place.

Any reasonable employee of the EFCC knows that in this era of electronic payment where public sector accounting is done under the GIFMIS platform, it is not possible to pay slush allowance or any money for that matter to any staff, person or organization without justification.

Obviously, the allusion to 25 percent allowance payment to Aremo is to further demonize Lamorde as attempting to bribe Aremo into acquisance in his supposed vigorous activism for workers’ interest. In plain language, it was a bribe to keep Aremo silent! This is the height of mischief, intended to incite staff of the agency to mutiny over imaginary allowances thought to be deliberately withheld by management. No such exist. Indeed it is ludicrous that anyone would be clamouring for some fat allowances in this era of dwindling resources, when many agencies of government are battling to pay staff salaries.

Anyone staff who want to be fair to Lamorde would acknowledge the efforts he has made to improve staff welfare since he took the reins. Apart from maintaining the existing allowances in the consolidated salary structure of the Commission, he has introduced staff canteens in most of the offices of the Commission where employees eat decent but subsidized meals. A housing scheme is also being implemented that offers employees the opportunity to own houses and pay over a specified period. Staff buses are also servicing some routes in the FCT, easing transportation of staff to and from the office. He also organized the first awards and rewards ceremony to celebrate staff in Commission’s history.

These are hardly the imprimatur of a task master!

The claims of insubordination to, or is it usurpation of the powers of, the Secretary to the Commission by a so called female Head of Human Resources, is not only fictional but exposes the ignorance of the authors about administrative procedures in the Commission. The EFCC is not an arbitrary organization as there are established rules and procedures governing its operations, and these include the recruitment, discipline and promotion of staff.

These rules which are not the creation of Lamorde, are clearly enunciated in the Staff Regulations and communicated to every staff of the Commission at the point of entry. The Human Resource Unit also regularly amplifies these rules through memos. Every staff of the Commission knows the consequences of failing confirmation or promotion examinations after the prescribed attempts. If staff take promotion examination, it is the duty of the Head Human Resources to collate the result for management, So what is the crime in performing this duty?

But, decision regarding appointment, promotion and discipline of staff is handled by an Appointment, Promotion and Discipline Committee which is headed by the Secretary to the Commission, drawing membership from the cadre of Directors of the Commission. So it is inconceivable that the Head of Human Resources will override the Committee. There is no evidence of such and we challenge the authors of this fiction to produce the evidence. There is also no evidence of the Commission violating the Federal Character principle in its recruitment. All recruitment by the EFCC is subjected to clearance by the Federal Character Commission. If any state has overshot its quota the Commission is better placed to determine that and so far there is no evidence that the EFCC under Lamorde has been accused of not reflecting this principle of national spread in the recruitment that have taken place in the last few years.

Nevertheless, it is important to state here that, the Commission will not bend the rule to accommodate staff who fall below the approved minimum standards and the resort to blackmail will not help such cases, if there are.

The fixation about police officers making money in EFCC tended to portray the Commission as a money spinning agency where people get rich quick. If that were the case, why will any staff complain about allowance or welfare? We all should be “making millions” too. The truth is that the EFCC operate a zero tolerance for corruption and officers who compromise in the course of the duties regardless of whether they are regular or seconded staff are subjected to the disciplinary process.

Indeed, Lamorde, created a Department of Internal Affairs that polices staff of the agency to ensure they uphold the Commission’s core values of integrity and professionalism. Those who have fallen short have been dealt with. In doing this the Commission applies the same rule. There are no two set of rules for EFCC staff.

https://www.palmtreereporters.com/the-unkind-cut-from-garba-shehu/

which one be palm tree reporters again?

Probably, the EFCC should have used Fayemi's case to show Shehu how shift and ruthless he presupposes the EFCC acts on allegations and see if Shehu will commend them

Alleged N20bn Fraud: Group Drags Fayemi, Others To EFCC, ICPC


The outgoing governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi has been dragged to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and then Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged fraudulent practices, running to over N20 billion.



The Save Ekiti Coalition (SEC), which made this allegation, wrote petition dated September 26, 2014 to the EFCC and ICPC and the petition was submitted in Abuja on September 29, 2014.

The petition signed by SEC Secretary, Comrade Oke Ayodele was titled; “Complaint of fraudulent practices against Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and others: call for investigation and prosecution.”


The group said the frauds were perpetrated through N2.6 billion construction of new civic centre, N383.9m earthwork for new governor’s office, diversion of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and Local Councils funds through contracts worth N4.2bn, inflation of road contracts worth over N10bn and diversion of N1.2bn FADAMA fund.
The petition read in part; “Contract for the construction of a New Civic Centre was awarded to TIANJIN-YUYANG Construction Eng. Limited on August 30, 2012 at the cost of N2, 573,584,395.75, while Consultancy on the construction was awarded to CASA Nig Ltd on June 11, 2012 at the cost of N137, 611,325.07.

20140929_170623-1

“Curiously, as at the end of 2012, a sum of N643,396,098.94 (representing 25% of total contract sum) had been paid to TIANJIN-YUYANG Construction Eng. Limited while the consultant, CASA Nig. Ltd was paid N89,801,901.06 (representing 80% of total contract sum).

“In 2013, a sum of N350, 116,245.17 was paid to TIANJIN-YUYANG Construction Eng. Limited, making a total sum of N993, 512,344.11 (representing 45% of total contract sum).
“While the Project contractor was paid 25% of the contract sum in 2012, why was the consultant paid 80% of the contract sum? Information available to us indicates that the Consultant was hurriedly paid 80% of the contract sum so as to enable some officials of the government get N50m of the contract sum. “Also, payment to the contractor was changed to N350, 116,245.17 in the 2014 Capital Projects Report, as against the sum of N643, 396,098.94 presented in the 2013 Capital Projects Report.


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“Contract for the construction of earthwork for the N ew Governor’s Office was awarded to PONTI-ITALWARE Nig Ltd on March 3, 2012 at the sum of N383, 900,911.06, with a sum of N115, 170,273.32 paid to the contractor. The New Governor’s Office was proposed to be constructed
from the N25bn Bond obtained by the State Government, with N3, 474,700.000.00 earmarked for the project. “However, with N115, 170,273.32 paid to PONTI-ITALWARE Nig Ltd form earthwork, as at today, the site has been abandoned, with no significant work done.

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“By our own assessment, what was spent on the site cannot be more than N5m. “Also, in the 2014 Capital Projects Report, the N115, 170,273.32 paid for the earthwork was deleted, raising poser as to why the payment was missing from the 2014 updated account.


“In 2012, contracts worth N4, 246,094,751.14 were awarded through the Bureau of Special Projects (under the Governor’s office), headed by Mr. Kelekun. The contracts were for renovation of schools, supply of school furniture and construction of classrooms. Funds for these projects were taken from SUBEB and Local Governments accounts.

“Of these contracts, N3, 672,078,820.14 were for renovation of schools alone. Atlantic Offshore & Properties got N1, 152,562,555.14, Strabic Nig. Ltd got N1, 107,744.408.21, Bam Darley Nig. Ltd. got N924, 977,310.95 while Fatub Nig. Ltd got N486, 794,545.84.

“Immediately the renovation contracts were awarded, Atlantic Offshore & Properties was paid N750 million (70% of contract sum), Strabic Nig. Ltd was paid N600 million (65% of contract sum), Bam Darley Nig. Ltd was paid N600 million (70% of contract sum) while Fatub Nig.
Engineering Ltd was paid N150 million (60% of contract sum). “A total of N2.1bn was paid from SUBEB and LG accounts to these contractors even before the commencement of work, and over 40% of the payment was diverted into private pockets.

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“In the 2014 Capital Projects Report, payments to the contractors were presented as;
a: Atlantic Offshore & Properties – N1, 022,130,415.64
b: Strabic Nig. Ltd – N957, 237,829.62
c: Bam Darley Nig. Ltd – N742, 730,990.25
d: Fatub Engineering Nig. Ltd – N431, 327,270.41

“As at the time N1, 022,130,415.64 was paid to Atlantic Offshore & Properties, only 60% work had been done, meaning that Atlantic Offshore & Properties was only entitled to N691, 537,551. Bam Darley
Nig. Ltd that was paid N742, 730,990.25 had done 60% work too and ought to have been paid N554, 986,386.57.
“Contracts for REHABILITATION of Roads were awarded at highly inflated cost, with some of the roads costing as high N50 million per kilometre when the immediate past government awarded CONSTRUCTION of roads at less than N45m per kilometre. The REHABILITATION only involved cutting of failed portion, filling with laterite and stone base and asphalt overlay. No subsoil drainages, new pipe culverts and box culverts were constructed.

“For instance, 10.7km Ado-Afao was awarded at N538, 638,704.26, 17km Ilawe-Igbara Odo-Ibuji road, which was awarded at a little above N200m by the immediate past government was re-awarded to at N894,698,043.75, 11.5km Ado-Ilawe road was awarded at N482,849,098.20, 3.6km
Ijigbo-Baptist College (Ilawe road) was awarded at N788,038,599.60 while Fajuyi-University Teaching Hospital Road that is less than3km was awarded at N447,544,063.50

“Rehabilitation of 13km Old Garrage-Ado-Ikere road was awarded to Plycon Nig Ltd at N2, 369,833,077.15.

“Construction of 0.8km Old Garrage-Ojumose (Ado-Ekiti) road was awarded to Heartland Nig. Ltd at N866, 872,873.13.

“Using the State Public Works Corporation (PWC), rehabilitation 5km township roads were embarked upon in each of the 16 LGs. Contracts for the rehabilitation of these roads were awarded without any input from the respective LGs while fund for the project was deducted from the
local councils allocation. “For instance, rehabilitation of 5km roads in Moba LG was awarded for N368, 950,821.09, Ido/Osi LG for N329, 950,821.50 and Ilejemeje LG for N347, 914,157.68. Apart from the PWC, cronies of Governor Kayode Fayemi were also given the contract. Most of the road projects have been abandoned.

“In 2010, the World Bank in collaboration with the Federal Government released $7.5m (about N1.2bn) for FADAMA III Project. The State Government was expected to provide counterpart fund of N100m. FADAMA III was for LIVESTOCK farmers. “However, the N100m counterpart fund was not provided by the State government until 2013.

“Instead of using this fund for the purpose for which the World Bank and FG released it, the State Government set up a scheme called Youths Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (YCAD) and used the FADAMA III grant from the World Bank and FG to fund it.

6-10 YCAD farmers were purportedly given N6 million each while FADAMA farmers, who registered FUGs of Ten (10) farmers collectively applied for six hundred and ninety thousand Naira only (N69,000.00 per farmer) were left unfunded.

“There were just 142 YCAD members, but the government claimed they were 15,000. “The government also claimed that it bought NINE Tractors at N98m and constructed abattoir for N18m. However, the tractors claimed to have been bought with N98m were the ones supplied to Ekiti State by the federal government during the immediate past administration of Engr Segun Oni.

“Also, the N100m counterpart fund paid by the State government into FADAMA’s ECO Bank, Ado-Ekiti account was later returned to the government coffers.

“For FADAMA IV, a sum of $10.5m (about N1.7bn) was released in August, this year by the World Bank in collaboration with the FG for cassava plantation. Moves are now being made to siphon this fund.”

Dailypost Nigeria

For all i know, Apc is not Good for nigeria...a party built on such a foundation cannot produce anything meaningfull..mark my word...examine ur self(life) before you quote me.

On Your Own is that moment when u choose to listen to APC..



GMB loser 2003-2015

Apc, a party of liars! Always making stupid allegation! GEJ till 2019!!!

APC and their sponsors who are supposedly the agent of change are nothing more than Evil personified. Actually they are worst than the DEVIL. Bunch of hypocrates with whom you cannot see any iota of truth.

The EFCC should have listed which High profile case it had taken to completion. Who has been convicted etc.

We can still remember the EFCC under Nuhu, This one is toothless.

LagosBoi2:
which one be palm tree reporters again?

That's my question too but Gej till 2019

ishiamu:


That's my question too but Gej till 2019

LagosBoi2:
which one be palm tree reporters again?

Read about them - https://www.palmtreereporters.com/

They could be APC sponsors but I doubt it anyway because APC will never say the truth as they represent nothing but LIES.

I have a feeling that many of the fallen angels who were banished to the earth are the ones who resurrected to become APC members. And since the Bible says Satan is the father of lies, it's not surprising how his children in APC are fervent in telling lies.They are so professional in the act.