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Lamorde Vows To Cleanse EFCC….staff to take lie detector
test Newsdiaryonline
Mon Dec 12,2011
Lamorde
Acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim
Lamorde has vowed to cleanse the anti-graft agency by setting up
internal affairs
department within the Commission.
Lamorde twice made the promise to cleanse the Augean stable of
the Commission on Monday
December 12, 2011, during a courtesy visit by
officials of the United
States Embassy in Nigeria and members of the
Senate Committee on
Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes who were on
oversight tour of the
EFCC facilities.
Addressing the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and
Financial Crimes, led by
its Chairman, Senator Victor Lar, the EFCC boss said he holds
the visit in very high
esteem. “This is the most important visit this year.
This is so because the
senate is the legislative body that created the
EFCC in 2002. We owe our
existence to you, the Committee is the bridge
between the EFCC and the
senate of Nigeria, the confirmation of the EFCC
chairman and other board
members of the Commission are made possible by
the Senate, the senate,
through the committee had always appropriated
money for us since
inception. We thank you so much for assisting us all
these years”, Lamorde
said.
The EFCC boss stated that the only way the Commission can make a
meaningful impact in the
fight against corruption is for the staff to be
cleansed from within. He
promised that under his administration, staff
will undergo a lie test
every six months.
“For us to really move forward, the Commission needs internal
cleansing. Things have
really gone wrong. We must deal with ourselves before we can
deal with others
outside. We have to look into the lifestyle of our
personnel. We are going
to embark on polygraph assessment of staff
periodically.”, Mr.
Lamorde had explained to the visiting law makers.
Earlier, the Committee chairman, Senator Victor Lar, said the
visit was for the
Committee members to ascertain how the 2011 budget was spent and
what the budget for 2012
looks like. The senator also observed that anybody who followed
the establishment of EFCC will know that things have not been
the same, “your credibility ratings have fallen”, he said.
Senator Lar, who described Lamorde as the doyen of EFCC said “he
saw the EFCC at
inception, saw it when it nose-dived. Today, people say the best
EFCC does is just to arrest, once you get to the court you are
set free, that is the end of it. It is not too good for the
image of EFCC”, he said’. Today, God has given you the
opportunity to right the wrongs”, he admonished.
Lar who led the Committee on inspection of EFCC facilities at
the Head office, Nigeria financial Intelligence Unit, (NFIU),
Training and Research Institute,
(TRI) and the 10 storey-building permanent site of the
Commission along the airport road said they were impressed “by
the resource utilization by the EFCC. The TRI remains the best
in West Africa. We were
at the NFIU and we were also impressed. As a committee, we would
ensure that this dream
of the EFCC is not aborted. However, the mandate of
the EFCC is not in
projects this magnitude but in reducing economic and
financial Crimes in
Nigeria”, he explained.
In a related development, the acting chairman also told the
visiting US officials
that he is making every move to turn around the Commission, as
there was need to move forward from the present state. “We need
the support of the US to
move from where we are to where we ought to be”, he
said.
The EFCC chairman who commended the US for taking the lead in
law enforcement
activities in the world, however, pleaded for more support in
the area of training.
“This is a very interesting moment in the history of
EFCC; which is a
continuation of the relationship between the EFCC and the
US. If there is any
country that extended support to EFCC when we came on board in
2003 in terms of capacity building and exposure, it is the
United States”, he added.
He asked for more slots
to be availed to the Commission at the FBI
Academy. Where that is
not possible, he suggested that “the Commission has
a state of the art
training facilities here in Abuja-Nigeria; “your people can come
over here to train our staff; that is if going to America for
the training will be
costly”.
Earlier, Mr. James McAnully, Charge d’ affaiars, America Embassy
in Abuja congratulated
Mr. Lamorde on his appointment and promised future
cooperation and every
necessary assistance to make the Commission excel.
McAnully who was
accompanied on the visit by Diane M. Kohn, Anti-Crime
Program Coordinator,
Embassy of the United States of America, said he had
no doubt that Mr.
Lamorde who had a very distinguished career in the Nigeria
Police Force before joining the EFCC at inception, will surely
excel.
Th
This is the document referred to in the Witness
Statement on Oath of Clifford O. Kokogho as
“Exhibit
COK.2”
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