• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Anti-graft war: Buhari set to replace Magu – Presidency source

ibrahim-magu

President Muhammadu Buhari may be nominating a new chairman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) any time from now, a Presidency source told BusinessDay in Abuja on Tuesday.

The source said the president has concluded plans to name another head for the anti-graft agency following the arrest and detention of its acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu.
“All I can tell you now is that it will be difficult for the president to retain Ibrahim Magu with the revelations from his financial dealings,” the source said.
Magu was drilled on Monday by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) over allegations of corruption.
He was later detained at the headquarters of the Force Criminal Investigations Department in Abuja where he spent the night.

A source close to the police told BusinessDay on Tuesday that Magu was detained to stop him from damaging documents meant for investigation. The source said Magu may spend a second night in detention as the evidence against him is so overwhelming and he would find it very difficult to deny the evidence.

Katch Ononuju, a public affairs analyst and public intellectual, also told BusinessDay on Tuesday that Magu would be sacked following a massive evidence against him over alleged corruption to the tune of N1 trillion.

Ononuju said Magu’s imminent sack is a culmination of the electronic evidence against him by George Ugbo and the 2016 report of the Department of State Services (DSS), which alleged that Magu was involved in massive corruption, a reason the Senate refused to confirm him as the substantive chairman of the EFCC. Despite his non-confirmation, Magu has remained in acting capacity at EFCC for over four years.

“There was a documented electronic post by George Ugbo against Magu and all this provided evidence that they will use to remove him. This was the culmination of the previous petition of the DSS to the National Assembly against Magu which is in the public space. It has finally been given a go-ahead to be actionable. So, Magu will be removed,” he said.

Magu’s current travails seemed to have been intensified by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who had advised President Buhari to sack Magu over alleged fraud, leading to speculations about a power play among top officials in the Buhari administration.
Magu’s interrogation, meanwhile, has divided members of PACAC, with Femi Odekunle, one of the members, describing Magu’s reported arrest and interrogations as the direct result of power play at the presidency.

According to Odekunle, “The alleged originating Malami memo, up to the current ‘arrest’, seems an outcome of power-play by power blocs in the corridors of power in which Malami appears to be an arrow-head or major agent of a power bloc that is not really interested in, or in support of, Buhari’s anti-corruption fight.”

He noted that Magu’s non-confirmation by the 8th Assembly, orchestrated by a power bloc and supported by the DSS ‘security’ reports, is part of the same power play.

“One can also note the non-resubmission of Magu for confirmation since May 2019 despite the apparent willingness of the 9th Assembly to consider it this time around. Furthermore, one must take cognisance of the alleged memo referred to earlier, i.e., by Malami concerning alleged corrupt practices by Magu, along with his own nominations for Magu’s replacement.
“Again, we cannot forget Malami’s demand of certain high profile case files from Magu which the latter has been resisting,” he said.
Odekunle advised President Buhari to be careful not to shoot his anti-corruption fight/modest achievements in the foot, and not to forget that EFCC under Magu has been the administration’s anti-corruption poster-face.

“It may not be contestable that Malami has been exploiting his alleged loyalty and closeness to the president for his personal/power bloc agenda,” Odekunle said.
But chairman of PACAC, Itse Sagay, in a statement by PACAC communications officer, Aghogho Agbahor, dismissed Odekunle’s position on the issue, adding that his position is not a true reflection of PACAC’s.
“The attention of the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has been drawn to a statement circulating in the media space credited to one of its members, Prof Femi Odekunle,” the statement said. “The press release is the personal opinion of the member under whose name it was released and not that of the committee.”