Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has been suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari over allegations of infractions.
Before his suspension, Magu was arrested by security operatives, grilled and detained at the Force Headquarters in Abuja. Some politicians have, however, reacted to the development.
Magu ran EFCC like cult – Shehu Sani
Senator Shehu Sani who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly has said the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, was running the anti-graft agency like a cult.
Sani who is under probe by the EFCC took to his Facebook page on Wednesday, to celebrate Magu’s arrest.
“Contrary to the facade you see from the outside, the EFCC has been run by an inside cult called ‘the Magu Boys’ or ‘the Chairman Squad.’
“They are a select cream of vicious and cruel officers who operate exclusively and with impunity and only report directly to their boss.
“The inside cult is the dark and immoral aspect of the agency engaged in persecution, blackmail, frame-ups, and cruelty.
“The cult has been the wheel behind the ordeal of their embattled Boss.
“Until they are rooted out from the agency too, I believe a lot of revelations will keep coming from other marginalized and honest officers in the so-called anti-corruption agency,” Sani posted.
Amend EFCC laws – Okorie
A former presidential candidate and elder statesman, Chief Chekwas Okorie has said Magu’s treatment fell short of international best practices and urged the federal government to amend the laws establishing the EFCC.
Okorie in a telephone chat with Daily Trust Saturday yesterday expressed worry that all those who headed EFCC have all run into one trouble or another.
“I’m a bit disturbed about Mr Magu’s arrest and detention. The process was not very tidy to the best of my assessment. And since it is not an investigation as such according to the Presidency, it is a panel for him to clarify certain things he was alleged to have done.
“Now, considering how these things are done in a civilised environment, the panel of inquiry is usually a public affair. People are given the opportunity to watch questions that are asked and answers that are given. But if it is a private investigation, nobody wants to make public the investigation until the matter is charged to court.
“But this is a panel of inquiry, so being done behind-closed-doors also raises certain doubts. Some are of the view that government does not want a situation where Magu will make public a statement that could embarrass it, or that there is some conspiracy somewhere.
“So my strong suggestion is that it is time to look at the laws establishing the EFCC itself so that they can be more independent and report directly to Mr President. Being such an important anti-corruption agency, it shouldn’t be exposed further to third parties. So I suggest that, that Act be looked at, again.
“Everybody knows that Mr President has given Magu, all the support to achieve what he is now being credited with. But I think where the problem has being is the third party.
“The office of the Attorney General also create this type of problem. It has always been the issue of Attorney General coming into the affairs of the EFCC that problems set in,” Chief Okorie said.
Magu was used as stooge by cabal – Dr Tanko
A former national chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Dr Yunusa Tanko has said a cabal in the polity has used and dumped Magu.
He said that due process needed to be followed in terms of putting officers in place and removing them, especially, in positions of integrity.
Dr Tanko who spoke in a telephone chat with our reporter yesterday said, “The truth is that Magu was being used as a stooge by those that be. Now they have finished using him and they are discarding him.”
“Honestly, there are issues that have been raised for quite a long time now that Magu has not been able to reconcile what he collected and what is in the media.
“Therefore, those who have already made him and defended him are those that have found him not useful anymore, so they discarded him,” he said.
“We can’t continue to use and dump people when we don’t need them anymore,” he added.
Magu must face prosecution – PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu must be made to face prosecution.
The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, argued that “the revelations” of diversion of recovered funds and fraudulent sale of assets seized by the EFCC among other sleazes, as detailed in the memo by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami as well as the report of the Department of State Services (DSS) were good reasons for his prosecution.
The party said that Magu’s indictment reinforced its position that the much-hyped war against corruption by the EFCC, under his watch, has been a huge scam by corrupt individuals to cover the plundering of public resources, harass political opponents, intimidate and extort money from innocent Nigerians.
The statement asked President Buhari to enforce the law by directing relevant agencies to commence actions that would lead to Magu’s prosecution in the court.
“The development has also exposed why corruption has worsened under the Buhari administration, as documented by a credible international organization, including Transparency International (TI).
“It is a big embarrassment to our nation, that the head of the anti-corruption agency in an administration led by the African Union (AU) anti-corruption champion and which prides itself on zero tolerance for corruption, is being dragged in allegation of looting recovered fund and other barefaced frauds,” the party said.
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