Magu sinks deeper as allegations widen

 

BY NICHOLAS ABE

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These are indeed difficult times for acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

For the fourth day running, Magu continues to answer to barrage of queries posed to him by a panel of investigators, led by former president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, following allegations against him by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.

Ironically, Justice Salami himself was bundled out of office some seven years ago, by the Federal Government, during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, over allegation that he colluded with politicians of an opposition party to use the judiciary to sack a ruling party governor in the south west.

Magu was said to have been quizzed for more than 10 hours, on Wednesday, after which he was returned to the custody of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) where he is being detained.

Some media report said the panel has expanded the scope of the probe by inviting top officials of the EFCC and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to respond to questions as may be relevant to the departments they supervise.

Some of the allegations against Magu, according to The Nation, are:

• Alleged discrepancies in the reconciliation records of the EFCC and the Federal Ministry of Finance on recovered funds
• Declaration of N539 billion as recovered funds instead of N504 billion earlier claimed
• Insubordination to the Office of the AGF by not seeking his approval on some decisions
• Not providing enough evidence for the extradition of ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke
• Alleged late action on the investigation of Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) leading to legal dispute
• Not respecting court order to unfreeze a N7 billion judgment in favour of a former executive director of First Bank
• Alleged delay in acting on two vessels seized by Nigerian Navy leading to the loss of crude
• Alleged favouring of some investigators called Magu’s Boys
• Reporting some judges to their presiding officers without deferring to the AGF
• Alleged sales of seized assets to cronies, associates and friends
• Alleged issuance of investigative activities to some media prejudicial to some cases.

Those invited by the Presidential Investigation Committee are EFCC Secretary Ola Oluyede and Director of Operations, Mr. Mohammed Umar. The others are: Director of Finance and Administration, the Director of Internal Affairs, some Zonal/Sectional heads, heads of departments/units and the NFIU.

READ: EXCLUSIVE: Magu may resign this week

The panel, also clarified that it had no information that Magu had been suspended from office.

According to The PUNCH, the panel would also be interested in establishing if indeed Magu bought properties abroad, particularly in Dubai, where he was said to have travelled to several times on official and private visits.

There is also an allegation that Magu sold off or mysteriously released about 157 oil tankers without following due process. The vehicles were alleged to have been seized by the Port Harcourt zonal office of the EFCC.