As a young woman who has been busy with fashion-life and career, politics has never grabbed my attention so overwhelmingly like this until the previous much-talked-about Jonathan government. Most particularly it’s twilight period. What set my mind ablaze was the news about the overflowing corruption that dominated the regime. Since then, I’ve been keen about corruption cases among government officials.
Appealing enough, the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari came as a heavenly blessing for my heart. So quick that I joined the league of believers that the new Sherif would not spare any corrupt human being during his government. I was so confident that his heavy flood would wipe off all corruption logjams in our country. At that exciting period, I was gladdened to the deepest part of my heart when I heard that the Code of Conduct Bureau, through the Inspector General of Police, has declared the new Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, wanted. I was so impatient to know the reason behind the decision. I was like: “Buhari don catch am!”
From the initiation day of the trial on 22 Sep 2015, to the Appeal days, which have been so promising, I remained fully concentrated on the case. Until November 11, 2015, when I heard of some sudden heart-breaking news about the Chairman of the Tribunal (CCT). A night to that day, I had been shocked by the dismissal of the EFCC Chairman (Ibrahim Lamorde). With all these, I was so perturbed by the whole anti-graft system, particularly by the space-taking-news that Lamorde was fired by President Buhari, after he had been put on months-long investigation, because of his alleged corrupt practices as EFCC Chair.
An analysis of corruption-based collaboration between Lamorde and Danladi of the CCT is another unbelievable story that is hitherto driving me out of my mind.
According to Daily Trust, one mister George Uboh petitioned the Senate on 26th of August 2015, claiming that the EFCC boss had diverted N1trn from funds recovered from corrupt public officers. The CCT Judge however, has also been mentioned in a corruption narrative that in 2012, Dan Ladi Umar, through his PA, Abdullahi Gambo, collected a first payment of a bribery demand of N10m from one Mr. Rasheed Taiwo. The bribe, according to reports, was to quash a case against him. When Mr. Taiwo was unable to meet up with the full payments eventually, he filed a petition with the EFCC against Dan Ladi Umar.
This, in view of reported stories by national dailies, is the point of collaboration between the head of the EFCC and that of the CCT.
After the disclosure of an abated investigation and continuous happenings in the CCT-EFCC, it was gathered that Dan Ladi Umar was granted bail by the EFCC on self-recognition on 29th of March 2014. Subsequently, the other two members of the CCT, on April 4, 2014, wrote a letter to the then-SGF, Pius Anyim, stating that they could no longer sit on the tribunal with Mr. Umar, based on the corruption charge.
It was argued, however, that upon the Saraki-led Senate probe of the George Uboh petition against the former EFCC Chairman, Lamorde, the CCT Chairman, Dan Ladi Umar, swing into action with the major motive of rescuing his benefactor friend from the clutch of the Senate.
Now that Lamorde has eventually been fired, owing largely to the corruption deadlocks on his head, its understandable that Dan Ladi’s help isn’t required anymore, if what he was doing was to appease Larmode in the first place. Well, he could decide to ride on as a way of avenging his acolyte’s falling.
Nonetheless, how and why these cases have not been boldly acted upon, long before now add more doubt to my surprise. If truly that there’s a corruption-fashioned relationship between Lamorde and Dan Ladi, critical investigations of those flowing allegations of corruption against the duo of them is supposed to have been carried out with without hesitation.
Before I would return to my fashion work, let me end by saying it is completely hard to believe that the Presidency isn’t aware of the CCT Chairman’s corruption allegations especially with those revealed official documents, leaving it till this moment when Saraki, number three of the country, is undergoing a trial at the bureau is too expensive.
Should Dan Ladi be fired like his EFCC friend, tomorrow? Trust me I will be the first person to raise eyebrow that its all because of the Senate President. And should the CCT Chairman rather be left to complete his mission on Saraki, then the anti-corruption mission of the President would be subjected to lot of subconscious queries for its actions toward an already-echoed corruption allegation against the CCT Chairman.
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