AGF report on Babachir, Magu ready – Report

A yet to be confirmed information has reached The DEFENDER that the report of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) on allegations of fraud against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Engr. Babachir David Lawal and Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is ready.

Effort to confirm the authenticity of the information was still on as at press time.

In the meantime, a national daily in Nigeria reported Wednesday that the AGF’s report was ready.

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered Malami to investigate Babachir David Lawal and Ibrahim Magu.

The daily, which claimed it got its own version of the information from a source in the minister’s office, “who does not want his name in print,” reported that Malami made efforts three times over the weekend to submit the reports to President Buhari but could not get access to him.

According to the media report, the source said the AGF made extra effort to contact every institution mentioned in the response to the query slammed on Magu and Babachir.

“This was to get additional information to what was contained in the response to the query. In some cases, the AGF did not rely on the responses to the query but independently on what he got from the institutions mentioned in the responses to the query,” the source reportedly said.

The ongoing process was ordered by the President after the Senate declined confirmation of Magu over alleged fraud, while another report by a Senate committee indicted Babachir in alleged corruption at the Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE).

However, a respondent to The DEFENDER cautioned against any media publication before investigation.  He said, “If you look at what you have just said, you will discover that it looks more like whoever in the media wrote the report was only trying to use his own journalism to distract the President as many people will want to read meaning of a presidential cover-up as reason the minister was prevented from submitting the report to the President.

“My advice to you media people is that, since we all agree that God has made blessed you with the power of information as a tool, use it to help the nation and the government by doing your underground work well so that you don’t end up destroying more than you are required to build.

“It is better to spend a much times doing the right thing than to rush into conclusion publishing any news and set the nation ablaze and backward doing so,” he said, adding however that, “If the report that the Attorney-General was prevented three times from submitting the report of an assignment given to him by the President is true, which bothers on the integrity of the President and its anti-corruption government, it means holistic measure has to be taken in overhauling the system with a particular focus on people around the President so that his good intention will not be rubbished,” he said.