MAGU VS MALAMI!! I Stand With Magu, He’s Not One Of Them (Read Shocking Details About EFCC)

Posted by E.L.E.X on July 18 2020 under News

Anyone who knows the genesis of EFCC will not be surprised by the present shenanigans between our Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and suspended Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.

Any EFCC Boss that’s not faced with the problem Magu is presently facing at one time or the other while serving in the anti-corruption agency has not achieved anything in that agency. For me, the ordeal that Magu is presently facing is a confirmation of his successes as EFCC Boss. To understand what I mean, I will first go into how EFCC was created.

HOW AND WHY EFCC WAS CREATED

EFCC was founded in 2003 as an agency to lead the battle against money laundering and advanced free fraud scams (419).In 2003, Nigeria was listed on the list of non-cooperating countries of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), thereby making it difficult for Nigerian banks to conclude some international financial transaction.

To solve this problem, the then AGF, Kanu Agabi (S.A.N) came up with the idea of EFCC and he nominated Nuhu Ribadu to be the chairman of the newly created agency.President Obasanjo appointed Ribadu as the first EFCC Chairman, he was appointed solely based on the AGF’s recommendation

What this means is that the EFCC is an agency under the Ministry of Justice and the supervision of the AGF and the EFCC Chairman is answerable to the AGF. That ultimately is where the EFCC problem started. The EFCC act also provides that only serving or retired member of any government Security law enforcement agency, not below the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police(ACP) or its equivalent can be appointed as EFCC Chairman. Therefore, as at the time Ribadu was appointed EFCC Chairman, he was an ACP.

NUHU RIBADU’S TENURE

Just three weeks after Ribadu was appointed EFCC Boss, he had shut down all the leading foreign letter scam (419) operations in Nigeria. He conducted a well-coordinated arrest of dozens of well-known leaders of these groups that basically had factories and home-offices churning out scam letters and FATF finally removed Nigeria from its blacklist.

That was how EFCC was born, it became the cynosure of all eyes and Ribadu became Obasanjo’s anti-corruption poster boy, a reason he’s still loved till today.

His first problem surprisingly or unsurprisingly (depending on the angle you look at it) came from his boss, the then Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tafa Balogun. The EFCC act made the IGP a member of the board of EFCC, while the EFCC Chairman is the Board Chairman of the agency. This means that during EFCC board meeting, the IGP will sit in a meeting, Chaired by his subordinate, an ACP, and he would have to seek Ribadu’s permission before he could speak, this, the IGP complained to Obasanjo.

He did not only complained, but he was also pushing for Ribadu’s removal and substitution with a retired IGP.

Nuhu Ribadu later revealed that Tafa Balogun wanted him out of the job because Balogun was corrupt and he knew him (Ribadu) as someone that will give him the problem. Ribadu vowed to go after Balogun and get him jailed in two years. True to his words, Balogun was out of job by 2005, tried and sentenced to prison.

This perhaps explained why almost all EFCC Chairmen have always been at loggerhead with the IGPs, Magu inclusive.

Yar’Adua took over as President, he appointed Michael Aondoakaa as his AGF and Minister of Justice. Aondoakaa was very uncomfortable with the stubborn, uncompromising and incorruptible Leadership of the Ribadu led EFCC because Aondoakaa was a friend and holding brief for most of the top politicians being investigated and prosecuted by EFCC, notably among them were Former Delta State Governor, James Ibori and Former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili.

Ribadu’s EFCC was prosecuting at least 9 Governors simultaneously, just immediately after all of them ended their tenure in 2007, they were the first set of Governors to face prosecution.

Ibori ‘bribed’ Ribadu and his staffs with $15m in cash, for them to clear him of corruption charges, it was so heavy that no single person could carry it alone, Ribadu collected the money and drove it to the CBN where the money was counted and boxed into a small container and presented in court against Ibori.

Before Obasanjo left as the President, he had nominated Ribadu for a second term in office, Unfortunately, he had not sent the nomination to the Senate for confirmation, this omission was what ended Ribadu’s EFCC career.

WHY I PERSONAL THINK MAGU IS NOT A THIEF

For me, I still insist, up till this moment that MAGU IS NOT A THIEF.

Most of the allegations levelled against Magu are either inconsistent, too bogus to be true, disjointed, unbelievable, fallacious or already confirmed to be untrue and disclaimed.

Magu was arrested on the 6th of June and released on the 15th, he was in detention for 10-day, but up till this moment, no one knows who arrested Magu and detained him for 10 days.

Immediately he was picked up on June 6, the DSS was reported to be his arrester, DSS immediately denied arresting him. The Presidential investigative panel investigating him was accused of being behind the arrest, the Panel also denied it, saying he was only ‘invited’, does the ‘Presidency’ has a detention facility? Who gave the ‘Presidential’ order of arrest? Who was it given to?

So far, none of the two panels investigating Magu has come public to say anything about the investigation, but there has been some information in the public quoting either of the panels.

Magu, as at Wednesday 13th of June, said he has not been served any allegation paper, he kept demanding for a copy of the allegations against him so that he can respond to all of it when his demand was not honoured, Magu responded to almost all allegations flying on media, even without being asked to do so.

Now, let’s examine some of these allegations from the commonsensical point of view. I’ll be examining only those that deal with ‘stealing and looting’ and not any other form of corruption:

1. 550BN LOOTING FUNDS

He was alleged to have stolen N550bn. Punch Newspaper quoted the amount to be N500bn, many other news platforms quoted it as N550bn.

I know that we have some Nigerians who are cruel and can actually steal that huge amount if given the chance, but it honestly defy commonsense that an EFCC Chairman, who is appointed to catch thieves will now steal that unimaginable amount, even if he wants to steal. How much is the total money Magu has recovered for Nigeria to steal as much as 500/550bn from?

Anyway, almost all the media platforms where Magu was alleged to have stolen N550/500bn later reported that Magu didn’t steal the money, but only failed to account for the interest accrued on the recovered N500/550bn, an allegation that Magu has denied. Magu said the money recovered was domiciled in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and TSA doesn’t generate interest.

2. 388 RECOVERED PROPERTIES

He was alleged to have cornered 332(some quoted it as 388) recovered properties for himself, EFCC officials and his friends.

While this is possible, it should be noted that this allegation was not linked to any credible source, the source mentioned by all the media platforms that carried that allegations as a news was another Media platform, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), if you have seen this on any newspaper or online media platform, go back and check again, almost all of them quoted NAN, no other credible source than that. NAN itself quoted PCARA as their source of information.

The questions begging for answers remains – Where are the properties located? What sort of properties are they? who are the friends of Magu and EFCC officials that got it? These questions so far are questions no one can answer.

3. N4Bbn To VICE PRESIDENT Osinbajo

Magu was alleged to have given Vice-President Osinbajo N4bn.

Like every other one, these allegations have no basis too. The source of it was not even from any media platform, it was from one Jackson Ude on twitter, a known PDP apologist, Both Magu and Osinbajo have denied it, though quite natural. Osibanjo even wrote the IGP on it, I think he’s taking a step further. From the source, the allegations can be taken with a pinch of salt

4. N28m TO BARR. FAMI FALANA

Magu was also accused of paying 28m to Barr Femi Falana to prosecute a case for him, Magu has denied the story, but if that was not enough, Falana has equally denied it.

Falana wrote a pre-litigation letter to The Nation newspaper, demanding for an apology within 48-hour or suing them to court.

The Nation admitted the story was false, apologized almost immediately, like every other allegations with no basis, The Nation quoted NAN as their source of information.

5. BUYING PROPERTY WORTH N573 IN DUBAI

The General Overseer of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries, Prophet Emmanuel Omale was fingered as the one laundering money for Magu and the one who acquired the property on his behalf.

Like every other allegation, this one also originated from NAN and also like any every other allegation, there’s no credible information about the alleged property, no video or pictorial evidence, no proof of ownership, no address of where the ‘uncovered property’ is located in Dubai.

Now again, in my own considered opinion, Magu will not come back to that seat as he is not likely to come of that investigation clean. Like I have said, if he’s not guilty of anything, he will be guilty of insubordination and disrespect for reasons mentioned earlier. But beyond that, the chances of Magu coming out clean from the Justice Ayo Salami(Former President of the Court of Appeal) led investigative panel is slim.

EFCC WILL GO DOWN LIKE ICPC

We already have a practical example of that in ICPC, ICPC was created in year 2000 for almost the same reason EFCC was created for 3 years after.

Today, no one knows what goes on there and no one is interested in it, some do not even know it exists, an average Nigerian doesn’t know the full meaning of ICPC. The Chairmen of ICPC come in quietly, do ‘paddy paddy’, earn money and leave peacefully.

What you hear about ICPC are just few, once in a while noise of investigation, no real prosecution, no conviction. How can an anti-corruption agency be that quite? If well-meaning Nigerians do not rise up to give Magu the necessary support (at least until he’s found guilty or indicted), EFCC will go the way of ICPC.

DISCLAIMER

Let me say here that, although what you just read are well-researched info, they are based on the current information available to me. When superior information or better arguments convince me to change my position, I’ll do so without hesitation and egotism

Written By:

Ogbeni Oguntola ‘Niyi Skrtel