Five years after he was appointed Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and refused confirmation as substantive chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Mustapha Magu has finally been suspended by the Presidency.
This was according to feelers from Abuja afternoon of Tuesday.
Magu was served an invitation, on Monday, said to be sent from a Presidential panel sitting in the Villa probing his leadership of the EFCC for corruption.
The invitation was served on him by a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), whose car was reportedly accompanied by a backup containing three heavily armed policemen at the Wuse II annex office of the EFCC, requiring him to face an inter-agency committee investigating corruption allegations against him.
Reports earlier broke the news of Magu’s arrest by operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) but the Service’s prompt press statement by its Public Reactions Officer, Dr. Peter Afunanya, denied arresting him.
The EFCC’s headquarters corroborated the DSS ‘s position when it said its head was neither arrested nor forced to accept the invitation but that he simply went to honour the panel’s invitation in the Villa.
The DSS spokesman reiterated its earlier position on the matter in a telephone conversation with The DEFENDER on Tuesday.
Magu was however said to have been detained at the Nigeria Police’s FCID in Area 10, Abuja, Monday night on the orders of the probe panel that also questioned him on Tuesday morning.
Our calls and text messages to the Presidency for confirmation or otherwise of the anti-corruption fighter’s suspension were not returned as of the time of filing this report.
A source in the Presidency, however, reportedly confirmed the development Tuesday afternoon that Magu has now been suspended pending when a decision will be taken on him.
