$15m Ibori Bribe: Clark Calls for Sack of Lamorde, Others

First Republic Minister of Information and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, Tuesday pushed for the sack of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, for his alleged role in the $15 million bribe money allegedly belonging to former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori.

Ibori, who is serving a 13-year jail term in a London prison, while in office, had allegedly offered the money to former EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to stop being probed for corruption.

Clark, at a news conference in Abuja, also canvassed for the prosecution of Lamorde, who was EFCC’s Director of Operations under Ribadu, when Ibori allegedly offered the money and was asked to fetch it from the home of a former presidential aide, Chief Andy Uba, now a senator.

Clark, who urged President Goodluck Jonathan to remove Lamorde and try him for perjury, adduced reasons to support his claims that the $15 million bribe money belongs to the Delta State Government.

The former minister, who listed what he described as the contradictions and lies of the EFCC as contained in its affidavit on the $15 million bribe money, said the affidavit sworn to on August 10 by Bello Yahaya, a police officer attached to the EFCC on behalf of the agency, “puts the anti-corruption agency not only in ridicule, but portrays it as an agency not transparent, competent and committed to the war against corruption.


“In paragraph seven of the his affidavit, he claimed, ‘That I know as a fact that the said $15 million is unclaimed property and no one has claimed or shown any link to the sum.’

“This is not true as in September 2009, the Delta State Elders and Leaders Stakeholders’ Forum, in a protest march that took them to the Central Bank of Nigeria premises in Abuja, submitted a written petition to the governor of the central bank urging him to refund the money to the Delta State Government, as James Ibori as an individual could not have raised the said huge sum.


“Also in the charges that were later dropped by the London Crown Court against James Ibori and in the statements of former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, to the Metropolitan Police, the ownership of the said money was not in doubt,” he said.

He also pointed out that the EFCC’s averment in the affidavit that Yahaya deposed to that the $15 million was unclaimed property contradicted Ribadu’s statement against Lamorde on the source of the money.

According to Clark, “This is a blatant lie and a grave misrepresentation of facts as Senator Andy Uba had made public statements where the source of the money came from, where it was given and widely circulated it in the press and electronic media.”


He said despite the fact that the source of the money is now public knowledge, Lamorde and his staff were deliberating denying the source of the money.

“Is it not ironic and embarrassing that the EFCC officers that worked and collected the James Ibori $15 million should disbelieve their former boss’ statements or contradict him that they do not know the source of the funds?” he asked rhetorically.


Clark accused Lamorde and other EFCC staff of lying because of the proviso in the EFCC Act that the agency will get 30 per cent of any unclaimed money that is forfeited to the Federal Government.

He recalled that funds belonging to Bayelsa State traced to a former governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and about 800,000 pounds sterling belonging to Plateau State that was traced to former Governor, Chief Joshua Dariye, were returned to the respective state governments, wondering why the case of the $15 million should be different when it was obvious that the money belongs to Delta State.

Clark described the roles played by Lamorde and his staff as despicable, an embarrassment and a shameful act.
“I demand the immediate restructuring of the EFCC so as not make the international community view our anti-corruption agencies as corrupt and ineffective because by the EFCC’s double role in the Ibori saga, they have become a disgrace to the people and government of Nigeria.

“I demand the sack of Ibrahim Lamorde and a thorough investigation into the dual roles of the EFCC and their agencies and those found wanting should be charged to court as a deterrent to other,” he said.
He also gave insight into how Ibori collected N120 billion as supplementary budgets of five years in arrears in 2005, back dating the request.

He said that Ibori’s criminality was reported to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo who directed that the matter should be investigated.

However, he said that because of some pecuniary interest of the EFCC, the matter was not investigated.
An Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court on September 10 had ordered the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mohammed Abubakar, to probe Uba and a businessman, Chibuike Achigbu, in the bid to determine ownership of the controversial $15m cash.

The court, which gave the order following a direct criminal complaint made by the Festus Keyamo Chambers, ordered the IG to report his findings to the court Tuesday, September 26.