Can You Imagine: EFCC Has No Money To Pay Lawyer Anymore!

EFCC Boss

Rumour making round indicates that  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC  is broke, it cannot pay lawyers retained by it to handle most of the big cases against  influential politicians/ suspects who are either involved in high profile money laundering or outright stealing.

It was also gathered that the cash crunch had seriously affected the commission to the extent that its enlightenment programmes  on radio and television stations had been suspended.

The Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, had while addressing the House of Representatives earlier this year said, 

“It is important to note that for 2012, we requested N21.8bn from the Budget Office of the Federation out of which only N10.9bn was allocated, representing 51 per cent of our requirement.”

He further revealed that of the N300m and N700m for Legal Services and Staff/Office Equipment Insurance Premium respectively for 2012, not a kobo was allocated.

Also, the total budget estimate of N10, 97bn  for 2012 represents a decrease of N2.87bn from that of 2011 appropriation figure of N13 85bn  or 21 per cent  thereof.

Of the N10bn acquired for the construction of the Head office in the 2012 budget, only N3bn was appropriated and as of November 21, 2012, only N1.39bn  was released.

If the organ responsible for fighting corruption is not well funded, one can only imagine  the temptation they will face in the hands of corrupt politicians.