Five days after he was picked by security operatives, the presidency is yet to officially communicate to Nigerians on the probe of the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.
Also, no official statement has been issued on the suspension of the EFCC boss, just as Nigerians await a presidential announcement on Magu’s successor. There is confusion as to who is in charge of the anti-corruption agency at the moment following the detention of Magu as some names have been flying in the media while relevant authorities keep mum. Lawyers, anti-corruption crusaders and civil society groups yesterday knocked President Muhammadu Buhari and other federal government officials over the alleged “shoddy manner” the Magu debacle was being handled.
Since Monday, July 6, 2020, when the Magu issue became public, the presidency did not issue any official statement on the matter, leaving Nigerians guessing and the media speculating. Magu, who is seen as the face of President Buhari’s corruption war, is being grilled by a presidential panel chaired by a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, over corruption allegations.
Salami panel only heard of after Magu’s arrest.
It was reported that the existence of the Salami-led presidential panel was not known until Magu was arrested on Monday. Credible sources said the panel had been sitting in the last two weeks and had reviewed “tons of documents and interacted with other people before directing security operatives to bring Magu for interrogation.”
One of the credible sources said the panel was constituted by President Buhari to probe various allegations levelled against Magu following a petition by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Department of State Service (DSS). But on the day Magu was picked and taken to the Aso Rock, there was no official communication.
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said Magu was not arrested but rather invited so that he could respond to some issues. “There is a presidential panel that has begun sitting, investigating the disposal of recovered assets and the EFCC chairman is responding to their questions. “I will not call it arrest per se, as many have suggested, but they need him to be immediately available to them so that he can respond to issues as they arise,” he said. On the other hand, Malami through his spokesman, Dr Umar Gwandu, said he had no knowledge of Magu’s arrest. “You are just informing me now,” Gwandu said when told that his boss had reportedly written a memo in June, 2020, which indicted Magu. ‘Suspense’ at EFCC Late at night on Tuesday, July 7, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Mohammed Umar, a deputy commissioner of police and director of operations at EFCC, had been picked to oversee the affairs of the agency in the absence of Magu. It said an anonymous source at the agency said Umar was chosen by the “EFCC’s hierarchy” following the reported suspension of Magu.
“The commission had not received any official communication on the reported suspension…The spokesman for the EFCC, Mr Dele Oyewale, declined comments when contacted to confirm the latest development,” it said.
Attempts to find out if there was new development at the anti- corruption agency was also not successful. Oyewale did not respond to phone calls or reply to a text message sent to him.
But a source in the commission said that Umar had taken control pending when a substantive head is announced by the presidency. However, another source countered saying there was no official communication from the presidency to that effect.
“DCP Umar is only the most senior operation person in the agency and he has limitations as to what he can do…The truth is that things are not the way they should be,” he said.
According to him, “I heard it somewhere that he is there as a stop-gap-measure pending when a substantive chairman would be appointed after the president receives the final report of the Justice Salami panel.”
The presidency also yesterday kept mum over the reported appointment of a new acting chairman for the EFCC.
While Garba Shehu declined comments on the matter, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, also refused to answer the question when asked during a briefing after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. Mohammed said the best person to react to such a question was AGF Malami.
