The suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu has threatened to drag some media outfits to court for what he described as “spurious and fallacious” reports against him following the allegations of fraud leveled against him by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami.
Magu’s Counsel Tosin Ojaomo, told BusinessDay in a chat that his client wants the media reports to be retracted and if they failed to do so he will drag them to court.
“We are talking about somebody’s integrity, nobody will allow somebody to peddle injurious information about him and still fold his arm.
“Most of the publications are false, therefore these newspapers should retract those statements in the interest of justice. Allegation is one thing, substantiating it is another,” he said.
Ojaomo noted that Magu is not on trial, saying “what is happening at the Presidential panel is a fact -finding mission but I can assure you that Magu is clean and will debunked all these allegations at the panel and come back stronger to fight corruption.”
Magu was released on Wednesday, July 15 after spending 10 days in detention at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) following this arrest on July 6 by men of the Department of Security Services (DSS).
Magu formally wrote to the Ayo Salami-led Presidential Panel investigating the alleged corruption leveled against him by Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and denied all the media reports linking him to the alleged corrupt acts.
Lead Counsel to Magu, Wahab Shittu, in a letter addressed to Ayo Salami, Chairman of the Presidential Investigation Committee on alleged Mismanagement of the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020, raised concerned over what the legal team called “serial falsehood publications in the media” over the multiple allegations in respect of matters which never featured in the proceedings of this Honourable Panel.
The Counsel said one of the series of falsehoods was the news item with title “NFIU SUBMITS REPORT ON MAGU’S FOREX TRANSACTIONS TO PANEL” published in one of the national dailies on Tuesday July 14.
Debunking the claim, the Counsel said “Our client states categorically that he has not been confronted on alleged illegal transactions and no such report was tendered by NFIU in any proceedings before this panel involving him till date.
“Our client states categorically that the maximum forex transaction he has been involved in is the sum of $10,000 (Ten Thousand Dollars) till date. Our client also wishes to place on record that he has no link with Kaduna-based Bureau De Change Operator as erroneously reported in the publication.”
On the alleged N573 MILLION NAIRA DUBAI PROPERTY LINKED TO MAGU, the Counsel said “This allegation is outright falsehood and is denied by our client in unmistakable terms. It is instructive to state that the General Overseer of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries, Prophet Emmanuel Omale, in a pre-litigation letter addressed to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday 13th July, 2020, denied the allegations that he bought a property in Dubai worth N573 million on behalf of our client.
“Our client challenges his accusers to provide details of such property and proof of ownership by our client.”
The Counsel also refuted the report that the panel interrogated Magu for allegedly embezzling N700 million Training Fund, published on July 14.
“The allegation that this Panel requested our client to account for the sum of N700 million meant for the commission’s operatives is not true. Our client has not been confronted with such allegation by this Honourable Panel. Our client does not disburse any such funds in the EFCC.
“The immediate Director of Finance and Administration (DFA) summoned by the Panel must have furnished details on this as the custodian of the funds. Our client denies this allegation completely.
“Funds earmarked for training was properly utilised by the Commission. The DFA and the Director of Audit will explain the utilisation of the funds meant for training with supporting documentations.
On the reported question of alleged N5 billion election fund against Magu published on Monday July 13, Shittu in the letter denied that Magu received from INEC or anybody the sum of N5billion Election Fund.
“Our client has never been confronted with the alleged N5billion Election Fund by this Panel. This outrageous sum quoted above is outright falsehood. Funds released by INEC to EFCC were disbursed directly to the beneficiaries who participated in the electoral process.
“This information can be verified from the INEC Chair, the Director of Finance and Administration EFCC and Director of Audit respectively. Our client has absolutely nothing to do with the sum disbursed as Electoral Fund and never benefitted from the disbursement. The story is complete fabrication designed to tarnish the image of our client,” he said.
Magu also denied cornering recovered assets with other EFCC official as reported in the media.
He asked; “Who are the EFCC officials who cornered the properties? What specific properties were cornered? And by who? Who were these Magu’s friends who cornered these properties?
“Our client insists that these imputations attributed to the Panel are outright falsehood. Our client states that these allegations never featured in the proceedings of the panel,” Shiitu said.
The Magu legal team made several other denials of other reports in the media, saying “The charges against our client are trumped-up allegations designed to tarnish his image and rubbish the credibility and image of EFCC which has been Stellar and outstanding under our client’s watch.”
“Based on the above circumstances, our client was not given adequate time and facilities for his defence and his demand for a copy of the allegations against him has not been honoured till date.
We appeal to the Honourable Panel to consider the above and uphold the Fundamental Rights to fair hearing of our client.”
