Details of the ‘damning’ report by the Department of State Security Services (DSS) on the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu on whose basis the senate rejected his nomination has emerged.
In the report, Magu was accused of corruption and hobnobbing with high-profiled Nigerians facing corruption charges as well as the use of police cronies in his operations so as to cover up his tracks.
incidentally, most of the allegations contained in the DSS report have been report by blogger Abubakar Usman, on which basis he was arrested and detained on August 8, 2016.
The five-page damning report Dated October 3, 2016, was addressed to the Acting Clerk of the Nigerian Senate.
“Investigation on the chairmanship of Magu revealed that in August 2008 during the tenure of Farida Waziri as the commission’s chairman, some sensitive documents which were not supposed to be at the disposal of Magu were discovered in his house. He was subsequently redeployed to the police after days of detention and later suspended from the police force,” said the report.
“In December 2010, the Police Service Commission (PSC) found Magu guilty of action prejudicial to state security – withholding of EFCC files, sabotage, unauthorised removal of EFCC files and acts unbecoming of a police officer, and awarded him severe reprimand as punishment.
The DSS report which nailed Magu alleged that the EFCC Boss is culpable in the corruption allegation against his predecessor
The DSS submitted that the circumstances which led to Magu’s return to EFCC and his closeness to Lamorde “is a clear indication of his culpability in the corrupt tendencies of the Lamorde led EFCC.”
“The circumstances surrounding Magu’s return to EFCC at the former Chairman, Lamorde and their close working relationship ever since, is a clear indication of his culpability in the corrupt tendencies of the Lamorde led EFCC,” the report signed by a top notch (name withheld) in the DSS said.
“Notwithstanding, sequel to the appointment of Ibrahim Lamorde as chairman, he made the return of Magu to the EFCC a top priority. Magu remained a top official of the commission until he was appointed to succeed Lamorde.
According to the report, “Magu is currently occupying a residence rented for 40m at N20million naria per annum. This accommodation was not paid from commission’s finances but by one Umar Mohammed (Air Commodore/Rtd), a questionable businessman and ally of subject who has subsequently been arrested by this service.
“For the furnishing of the residence, Magu enlisted the Federal Capital Development Authority to award a contract to Africa Energy, a company owned by the same Mohammed, to furnish the residence at the cost of N43m.
Magu is also accused of flying first-class as against President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.
“Investigations show that the acting EFCC chairman regularly embarked on official and private trips through a private jet owned by Mohammed.
The service also claimed that the EFCC boss was once in the same flight to Maiduguri with a Managing Director of one of the new generation banks, who it alleged was under investigation.
It added that the bank chief had been linked with a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The DSS stated that after the arrest of service chiefs by the EFCC, including Badeh, Umar and Amosu, Magu’s ally, while under interrogation by the service, had confessed that he didn’t want Amosu to be probed, the reason why the EFCC arraigned Amosu after his friend’s interrogation.
“In one of such trips, Magu flew to Maiduguri alongside Mohammed and Nnamdi Okonkwo, the MD of Fidelity Bank, who was being investigated by the EFCC over complicity in funds allegedly stolen by the Immediate past petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
“Furthermore, the EFCC boss has so far maintained a high-profile lifestyle. This is exemplified by his preference for first-class air travels. On 24 June, 2016, he flew Emirate airlines first-class to Saudi Arabia to perform lesser hajj at the cost of N2.9m. This is in spite of Mr President’s directive to all public servants to fly economy class.
“Magu has fostered a beneficial relationship with Mohammed who by his confession approaches clients for possible exploitation, favours and associated returns.”
