By our reporter| Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency was not allowed to go back home on Monday night by the panel investigating alleged infractions by him as the plot to remove him thickens.
Magu was grilled for several hours by members of the panel in the presence of an EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo.
When the panel broke up for the day, Magu was sent to Area 10 Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) of the police where he spent the night, according to sources familiar with the case.
Some of the allegations against Magu being investigated by the panel headed by Ayo Salami, former president of the court of appeal, include- discrepancies in the reconciliation records of the EFCC on recovered funds, leaking investigative reports to the media before going to court, sale of seized assets to cronies, associates and friends, shortfall of N35 billion in his declaration of recovered funds, insubordination to the AGF, not providing enough evidences for the extradition of Diezani Alison-Madueke and ignoring court order to unfreeze N7 billion despite judgment in favour of a suspect.
The attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami has asked President Buhari to sack the country’s corruption Czar.
However, many informed people within the corridors of power have diamissed the allegations, describing them as ”majorly a battle between the AGF and the EFCC boss.”
The presidential advisory committee against corruption (PACAC) said as much in a statement on Monday night.
Part of the statement read, “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.”
Another source described the move by the AGF to remove Magu as a smokescreen and a cover-up plan over alleged corruption by him.
The AGF have been accused of a cover-up in the Malabu oil deal trial as he had insisted there was no case there until Magu was said to have stood his ground. He was also accused of watering down high profile corruption cases thus frustrating EFCC’s efforts.
Even Transparency International accused Malami of not helping the anti-corruption fight, saying the AGF has not successfully completed a single corruption case in five years as the nation’s number one law officer, the source said.
The AGF, the source continued, has not hidden his disdain for Magu and has used insiders at the commission to sponsor media attacks to discredit the EFCC boss.
According to the source, the two have for a long time played the cat and mouse game.
The grilling of Magu, who was appointed acting head of the anti-graft agency in 2015 by President Buhari, but rejected twice by the 8th Assembly, after the SSS, allegedly in collaboration with Malami manufactured a security report against him, is expected to continue Tuesday.
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