No going back on EFCC, Senate insists

In from Olumide Olaoluwa …
The Senate has insisted the investigation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, over alleged diversion of N1 trillion recovered fraud funds would begin as scheduled today Wednesday.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja.
Anyanwu said that the position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senate caucus, which asked the Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee to abort the investigation of the EFCC boss, was irrelevant since the committee is only answerable to the Senate as an institution.
The panel chairman said that the EFCC is just one out of about ten petitions the committee planned to investigate.
He described the statement by the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, which claimed that the time was not right for such a high profile investigation to have emanated out of misinformation.
Anyanwu said that Akpabio, having realised that he misunderstood the thrust of the investigation before he issued the statement had called to apologise.
The committee, he said, is guided by the Senate Standing Rules and the 1999 Constitution to invite anybody when the matter arises.
Anyanwu also ruled out the insinuation that the Senate might be on vendetta mission against Lamorde for the investigation of the wife of the Senate President, Toyin Bukola Saraki.

Read also: Rumpus in Senate over probe of EFCC boss, Lamorde

Asked his reaction as a PDP senator to PDP senate caucus, kicking against Lamorde’s invitation, Anyanwu said. “As the Chairman Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, I am answerable to the Senate in the first instance. Two, this Committee attends to every petition that comes from the public.
“The invitation to the EFCC boss is one of those petitions and the petitioner is going to appear before the Committee. If you look at the press statement by the Minority Leader of the party, Senator Akpabio, it was a misinformation.
“There was an amendment of a motion at the floor of the Senate where the CBN Governor was to be invited with the EFCC boss regarding money laundering and all that.
“But we stood it down. So, there was a misinformation. So, he thought that it was the same issue. But this is a petition against the person of the EFCC boss.”
On whether the misinformation has been sorted with Akpabio, Anyanwu said: “He (Akpabio) called and he felt sorry about that. It is a press statement he made. He has been clarified on the issue. So there is no misunderstanding. “
Asked whether his Committee will go ahead with the probe, he said: “Of course, this is a standing committee of the Senate. It is not only EFCC boss that was invited.

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