Prominent political analyst and one-time ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, Buba Galadima, has dismissed the fight against corruption by the current administration as a ruse.
Galadima’s stance follows the accusations, counter accusations and revelations surrounding the probe of the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.
Magu is facing a presidential panel headed by Ayo Salami, a retired president of the Appeal Court, over allegations of corruption levelled against him by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
Reacting to the Magu saga, Galadima said some people fighting the suspended anti-graft czar want to get rid of him but are afraid he would expose them.
He said Magu has been in the EFCC since 2004 and therefore has the dossier of every corrupt person in Nigeria and that if the government is serious about fighting corruption, it should make Magu’s investigation open.
“If they think they are serious in fighting corruption, let them organise a public hearing and confront Magu with all the allegations against him and let him respond publicly, but if they are doing it secretly, it means they can even eliminate him if he encroaches on some of them,” Galadima said.
“They returned his official vehicles, they returned his security, he is bouncing back to the office. Who will ever believe that this is happening during Buhari’s government?” he asked.
Despite the secrecy surrounding Magu’s investigation, some of the allegations have managed to filter into the public space.
In response to an earlier report by the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets which accused him of failing to account for the interest on N550bn recovered funds as well as recovered vehicles and houses, Magu earlier in the week reportedly said some of the vehicles seized by the EFCC as proceeds of corruption were auctioned to the Presidential Villa, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other government agencies.
Magu, in a letter addressed to the Salami-led panel titled ‘Re: Alleged Case of Conspiracy, Enrichment, Abuse of Public Office and Other Infractions’, reportedly detailed how some of the recovered vehicles were auctioned.
“On allocation of vehicles to some government agencies through special auction with presidential approval. The beneficiary agencies are: the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management of which the valued price is to be debited from their allocation; State House, National Commission for Refugees and Displaced Persons; Federal Inland Revenue Service and National Directorate of Employment,” Magu said in the letter.
He said further that about 450 other recovered vehicles had yet to be sold despite receiving presidential approval to do so.
He said some of the houses permanently forfeited to the Federal Government by looters had also been handed over to some government agencies like the Voice of Nigeria, North-East Development Commission and the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate.
It was, however, learnt that an attempt to submit the letter to the secretary of the panel on Monday did not materialise as the panel reportedly insisted it is purely an investigative panel and does not entertain letters.
