The House of Representatives Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes yesterday said that it would not consider the 2013 budget of the EFCC over failure of its chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, to appear before it.

Also, senior officers of the NDLEA were turned back by the committee chair, Rep. Jagaba Adams Jagaba (PDP, Kaduna), because its head, Ahmadu Giade was not present during the budget defence of the agency.

The EFCC officials who were led by the Commission's Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Akomaye said the chairman had travelled.

However, Jagaba accused Lamorde of treating the parliament with disdain.

"If the EFCC Chairman doesn't meet the 11am Monday appointment, it means you (EFCC) don't need money to run this agency in 2013 and you risk zero allocation," Jagaba warned.

The NDLEA delegation which was led by its Director General, Femi Ajayi, said the agency's boss was ill and could not make the budget defence.

Reacting to the threat, EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren said in a statement that the agency was ready to defend the on Monday, December 3.

He said "the budget defence earlier scheduled for Wednesday had to be rescheduled at the instance of the committee to enable the Chairman to personally present the proposal to the committee."