Alam’s loot: Bayelsa disowns lawyer, as EFCC spits fire

Abuja — 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.

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.
Vanguard