Punch Is Being Sued N1bn By EFCC Chairman Lamorde

Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC)’s Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde has dragged the publishers of Punch newspaper to a Federal High Court in Abuja over a story published by the newspaper. Lamorde claims the story presented him as “fraudulent”, “corrupt”, and a “hypocrite.”

According to Lamorde, the story published on page 3 of Punch Newspaper of Tuesday, October 27, 2015 “Alleged N1tn diversion: FG orders EFCC to probe Larmode,” reads:

The fraud allegedly perpetrated by Larmode was said to have dated back to his days as the Director of Operations of the EFCC between 2003 and 2007 as well as when he acted as the Chairman of the commission between June 2007 and May 2008, when the then EFCC boss, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, was away for a course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos.

The petitioner, who alleged that the EFCC had not accounted for “offshore recovery” and that “over half of the assets seized from suspects are not reflected in the EFCC exhibit records,” promised the Senate that he would produce “overwhelming evidence” to back his claims against Lamorde.

He equally accused Lamorde of conspiring with some EFCC officers and external auditors “to operate and conceal a recovery account in the Central Bank of Nigeria and excluded the balances from your audited financial statements between 2005 and 2011.

In his petitions to both the Senate committee and Uboh alleged that the EFCC boss diverted, among others, the loot recovered from a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; and an ex-Inspector-General of police, Tafa Balogun.

He accused Lamorde of specific instances of under-remittance and non-disclosure criminal suspects, including Balogun and Alamieyeseigha, who reportedly died of cardiac arrest recently.”

“Lamorde, therefore, prayed the court to award him N1 billion as damages for the words published. He also asked the court to order Punch to retract the story and issue and apology to him.

A statement released on Thursday by his lawyer, Festus Keyamo reads in part:

“The Plaintiff avers that the libelous publication by the Defendant was widely circulated and read by millions of people in the world and particularly in Nigeria where the Plaintiff has several associates, friends, family and professional colleagues.

“The Plaintiff avers that by reason of the publication of the words set out in paragraphs 5 and 6 above and their import set out in paragraph 7, the Plaintiff has been seriously injured in his character, credit, reputation and integrity and had been brought to public scandal, odium and contempt and has suffered damage.

“The Plaintiff further avers that immediately after the publication was released, he received numerous telephone calls from professional colleagues, international donor agencies, multinational organisations, relations, friends and religious leaders expressing their utmost disgust and contempt at the Plaintiff’s alleged disgraceful, unpatriotic and sacrilegious conducts and questioned the integrity of the Plaintiff.

“The Plaintiff avers that the spurious allegations made by the Defendant are untrue and actuated by malice with intent to malign and undermine the Plaintiff’s reputation.

“The Plaintiff avers that he has suffered tremendous damage to his reputation and if the Defendant is not restrained, it will further publish injurious articles against the Plaintiff.

“WHEREFORE, the Plaintiff claims against the Defendant as follows:

 “The sum of N1,000,000,000.00 (One Billion Naira) only being damages for the words published of and concerning the Plaintiff which are libelous by direct reference and innuendos contained at the front page and page 3 of the Punch Newspaper of Tuesday, October 27,2015 titled ‘Alleged N1tn diversion: FG orders EFCC to probe Larmode.’ and further elaborated upon at page 3 of the said publication.

“A retraction and an unreserved apology by the Defendant for the words published of and concerning the Plaintiff which are libelous and contained at the front page and page 3 of the Punch Newspaper of Tuesday, October 27,2015 titled ‘Alleged N1tn diversion: FG orders EFCC to probe Larmode.’ and further elaborated upon at page 3 of the said publication and to be published with the same bold print and on the same front page as the headline complained of.

AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Defendant whether by itself, its agents, privies or servants from further publishing or causing to be published any libelous, injurious or defamatory words against the Plaintiff.”

Source: SR