The Bayelsa State Government, yesterday,
disowned a lawyer, who claimed to have been mandated by the state to file a
suit challenging Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for not
remitting the various sums of money it recovered from former governor Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha.George Uboh, cited as the Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert
Security System, is reported to have approached the Federal High Court Abuja
and asked it to compel the anti graft agency to remit N1.4 billion and $1.3
million to the state, being the amount it forfeited from Alamieyeseigha in
2005.Diepreiye Alamieyeisegha. The state government said it did not mandate the
said lawyer to file the suit and asked EFCC and the public to ignore the
matter.The statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr.
Daniel Iworiso Markson, made it clear that the state did not authorise any
individual to institute the suit and had no case with EFCC for that matter.The
statement said in part: “The attention of Bayelsa State Government has been
drawn to a publication in some sections of the media entitled Bayelsa asks EFCC
to remit N1.4bn from Alamieyeseigha.“The said reports quoted one Mr. George
Uboh, Chief Executive of Panic Alert Security System, reportedly acting on
mandate of Bayelsa State Government, wrote to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, to remit N1.4 billion and 1.3 million USD recovered from a
former governor of the State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.“Bayelsa State
Government denies the reports and states categorically clear that it did not
mandate any individual or firm to act on its behalf to request or institute any
suit against the EFCC.”Beyond asking for the repatriation of the sums to the
state, the lawyer also prayed the court to compel EFCC to pay interest at the
rate of 21 percent on the sums to the government without further delay.Uboh,
who accused the EFCC of trading with the Bayelsa money by placing it in fixed
deposits, said Chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, who investigated Alamieyeseigha,
should be made to quit office as he was not qualified to continue having traded
with looted funds of Bayelsa State.The plaintiff averred that Lamorde had
violated his oath of office by presiding over the affairs of the commission
after investigating and prosecuting the former governor and using the proceeds
for trading.Even before the denial by the state, the EFCC had already taken
serious exception to the suit and threatened that it would not back down on its
investigations on Bayelsa State and its officials despite the filing of the
suit, which it claimed was meant to deter it from doing its work.A statement by
EFCC’s spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said it doubted the claims by the lawyer
and would press ahead with its work in the state.
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Politics