Indications emerged on Sunday that about 20 Civil Society Organisations
under the aegis of Coalition for Civil Liberty and Equity, CCLE, have
concluded plans to protest for the sack of the chairman of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Larmode in Abuja on
Monday.
In a press statement signed by Mallam Isa Haruna of the Arewa Front for
National Advancement, AFNA, and Muideen Olaniyi of the Network for
National Integration, NNI, said the protest is to draw attention to the
compromised nature of the EFCC under Larmode’s watch.
Leaders of the coalition alleged that the “sudden resurgence of the EFCC
after a long period of hibernation and lack of direction under Mr. Ibrahim
Larmode amounts to grandstanding and cosmetic effort to deceive the
present administration and Nigerians that the anti-graft body was
working.”
The group warned that unless Larmode was removed, “the present witch-hunt
and cabal sponsored arrests and bogus charges would cast Nigeria in bad
light before the international community and all men of good conscience.”
According to the statement, the EFCC boss is a “tainted watchman given his
penchant for bias and culpability over pension fraud in the country. It is
on record that Larmode was fingered by the Senate Committee on
Establishment in 2013 over the conduct of biometric for pensioners in the
Diaspora.
“It was discovered that Larmode collected estacode twice for biometric
abroad and never went for any and refunded only one of the estacodes.
Larmode should also explain why he received allowances for meetings he
never attended with the Pension Reform Task Team.”
Haruna and Olaniyi decried the manner in which the commission has
undertaken the arbitrary arrest of former Jigawa Governor Sule Lamido and
his sons, former Head of Service, Mr. Steve Orosanye and a host of other
Nigerians, stating that if the ugly trend persists, Nigerians of good
intentions would be wary of serving in government.