WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2011-03-21 Time: 15:00:03 Posted By: News Poster
By Sola Shittu
Abuja – The stage is set for a clash between members of the House of Representatives and the nation’s foremost anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
What is the issue at stake? It is over the quantum of loots in cash and properties recovered from indicted politicians and public office holders by the EFCC.
The lawmakers are concerned that the amount, on record, recovered from such persons falls short of expectations while there are also fears that some recoveries might be in excess of the crime committed by the accused.
The House had set up an Ad hoc Committee on Recovery of Public Funds and Confiscated Properties by the EFCC to look into the allegation that some of the properties recovered were being auctioned to the Commission’s staff, their immediate bosses and pay masters.
Sunday Independent investigation revealed that the EFCC Chairman, Farida Waziri, had in a letter to the committee dated March 2 listed the names of those accused whose cases had been concluded and the loot recovered from them.
The letter reads: “Please find attached the details of the information requested including judgement of court. Please note that the schedule is in respect of cases which have been concluded either in court or otherwise terminated.”
The attached list included properties and monies recovered from former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun (N2.8 billion); former Edo State governor, Lucky Igbinedion (N500 million); former Bayelsa State governor, Diepreye Alamieseigha (N3.1 billion); Justice Oyeyipo of National Judicial Institute (N1.6 billion); Julius Berger ($26 million); STAPEM ($30 million); Haliburton ($32.5 million); Shell ($9 million); Japanese Gas Corporation ($26 million); Trans Ocean (($6.9 million) and Noble Drill ($2.2 million).
A member of the adhoc committee, West Idahosa who confirmed the receipt of the letter with the attached judgement and list of properties recovered from the EFCC, said it was not exhaustive because there was no mention of those whose case were determined otherwise in the list.
Idahosa also said the EFCC refused to disclose what has been done with the properties recovered and whether they are still intact or not.
Consequently, the committee plans to summon Balogun, Alamieseigha and others to appear before it and confront the EFCC to ascertain the exact amount of monies and properties recovered from them.
Also, the former Chairman of the EFCC and presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Nuhu Ribadu is to be summoned by the committee since most of the cases and recoveries took place during his tenure.
A petition by Jachin and Boaz law firm to the committee on behalf of Emmanuel Nwude listed his own properties and the amount supposedly recovered from him, putting the value to his properties as three times in excess of what the EFCC claimed it recovered.
Nwude’s petition raised question on the method of disposing properties recovered by the EFCC and the way they are being auctioned.
The Reps are of the position that every accused person must be attached with the content of corruption because it cannot be an indefinite corruption, stressing that the accused must also be protected in such a way that everything he has in life must not be sold off. He can only atone to the extent of his own crime.
“What the EFCC was asked to do was to give account of all the monies they have received from politicians upon recovery order. Secondly, all the confiscated properties and what they have done with those properties; whether they were sold, how much they were sold and where the monies were lodged, whether in the federation account or into the banks.
“If they are in banks, what the terms of lodgements were and then above all, the list of persons whose properties were confiscated and method of sales of confiscated properties because we do not expect that such properties can be sold by selective tenders.
“We expect that it must be in utmost good faith because you have taken it from the Nigerian citizen we want to know the method they followed. So far their report did not cover any of those,” he said.
Idahosa said the committee had scheduled another meeting this week to consider their submissions, formulate the issues and then publicly invite the media.
“For now, they have complied, and the good news is that the compliance was based on parliamentary insistence to subordinate agencies that they have created by their own laws to them.
“For example look at Tafa Balogun, they listed N2.8 billion recovered from him and it is lodged in CBN but there have been speculations for a long time that the money is close to N20 billion, so we will have to invite Balogun himself.
“Of all the properties listed against Balogun no mention was made of what it was sold for, what has happened to those properties, how much was realised and where the money is. We need to know because assets can be converted into liquidity, we ought to have had a report of what had been done. If they say they are now government properties and they are still intact, we will know that government has them for the purposes of determining the next use and if they say they have been sold, then we need to know how much,” said Idahosa.
He said the Reps are particularly interested in how much the EFCC recovered from Balogun and others in order to avoid double jeopardy and ensure that no man was punished beyond the extent of his crime.
“We need to know whether the processes have been justiceable and equitable,” he said.
A schedule of shares confiscated from Balogun was also listed. Thirteen choice properties were confiscated by order of court at Lagos and Abuja.
Similarly a schedule of the various banks and the accounts of Balogun where they recovered monies from were also attached with Waziri’s letter to the Committee.
But while the counts of Alamiesiegha were attached, that of Balogun was not attached while Bode George’s name was not mentioned at all in the list.
Also, names of indicted serving lawmakers and ex-governors in the National Assembly who have returned huge amount of money and property on plea bargaining were not included in the list.
“There are many people we know, whose names were not mentioned in the report. We know the two or three accounts of a lawmaker that they blocked in UBA. We are not telling you give us money from those you have convicted but what of those who surrendered under plea bargaining and did not end up in trial?
“The EFCC was very unwilling to surrender the report and it took them subsequent threat by the House to pass the information.
“She listed only Harliburton, Tafa Balogun, Igbinedion and Alamiesiegha. What about Joshua Dariye, George Akume, Chimaraoke Nnamani and others? We are fighting corruption and your procedure is corrupt. If you are an anti-corruption agency, your procedure should be open, not subject to doubt,” he said.
Original date published: 19 March 2011
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201103210602.html?viewall=1