The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has cleared a former Governor of Central Bank, Prof. Charles Soludo, of complicity in an alleged contract scam involving the production of polymer notes in 2009.
The EFCC has been investigating an alleged of N750m scam said to have been perpetrated by top officials of the CBN and Securency International Pty, an Australian firm.
Lamorde said operatives of the commission did not trace any of the money involved in the scam to the former CBN Governor.
The EFCC Chairman made the comment while presenting a special publication of the commission titled “Red Alert on Scam,” to the press in Abuja on Monday.
He said the foreign partners involved in the investigation requested certain clarifications from Soludo which he did.
He said, “It happened under his watch and the foreign partners requested certain things to be clarified from him which we did and at the end of the day there was nothing he could be said to have done wrongly.
“And no money could be traced back to him from all the bribes that were given. So he was exonerated as far as that investigation is concerned.”
Soludo who also spoke on the commission’s investigations involving former Kwarra State Governor, Bukola Saraki, said that some of the proven cases of financial crimes were not linked directly to him but to some of his aides.
He said that the affected aides were taken to court in Kwarra last week but could not be arraigned because the court could not sit.
“With regards to Bukola Saraki, some of the investigations around him are going on, some that we have proven, which was not directly by him, but his associates. Last week we took them to court in Kwarra; although the court did not sit, a new date has been given for re-arraignment.”
The EFCC boss warned politicians against the use of the commission’s name for political points.
He recalled that a political party addressed the media and made allegations that the EFCC had plans to arrest its leaders.
He also said that another fake letter was in circulation which claimed that the commission was investigating a former Minister of Education.
Lamorde stressed that the EFCC did not need any politician to prompt it to investigate those suspected to have committed financial crimes.
“The EFCC does not need the prompting of anybody to open investigation against anyone that has violated the law. But it does the nation no good when politicians seek to use the name of the Commission to further their political objectives.
“I like to sound a note of warning here that the Commission will no longer tolerate people dropping its name to further their political ends.
“The EFCC is not a political body and will not allow itself to be dragged into political fray by desperate politicians”, he added
The EFCC Chairman also raised the alarm that some unscrupulous elements were exploiting the rate of unemployment in the land to swindle job seeking youths of their limited funds.
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