No convincing reason for Buhari to drop Magu as EFCC boss – Reports

* We’re vindicated by new DSS report – Senate

* We received no new DSS report against Magu – AGF

* Says Magu not under any fresh probe

* ‘Purported new DSS letter originated from a group’

 “How are we not to believe that this purported DSS report indicting Magu is just a concerted effort by the 100 percent anti-Buhari Senate to bring down all efforts that the President is making to truly kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria?  What you will find is DSS report showing face and the next people that will talk will be the Senate or some of their lawyers.  Why?  We want to know.  And this will not even clear the Senators of the integrity problem they already have with us, Nigerians.”  One of them said under strictly requested condition of anonymity.

President Muhammadu Buhari would reportedly insist on his choice of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to The Nation, Buhari is studying the reasons given by the Senate for the rejection of Magu, and that he would make his position known to the upper chamber in the coming week.

The report said Buhari prefers and trusts Magu to oversee the affairs of the anti-graft agency and that he is not convinced that the man is not fit for the job.

The source said: “Personally, the President prefers Magu and he is standing by him. As at this week, the position of the President has not changed.

“There is no doubt that the President’s advisers have recommended the retention of Magu and he is likely to heed their advice.

“As I am talking to you, there is no fresh security report or any updated information which can make Buhari to turn against Magu. So, he is likely to stand by his letter to the Senate.

“At personal level, Buhari has confided in his key aides that he wants Magu in charge of EFCC.”

The Senate first rejected Magu’s nomination after a damning report against him by the Department of State Service (DSS), declaring him unfit for the job on grounds of corruption.

Following his second rejection by the Red Chamber, the DSS reportedly forwarded more detailed report and documents against Magu to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).

Details of the documents, which was leaked to the media on Friday, March 24 purportedly proves the acting EFCC chairman is not fit to retain his job.

Magu, however, has responded to the new report in a counter memo to the AGF, declaring the allegations false in its entirety.

Magu said: “Sir, it is important to situate my relationship with Commodore Mohammed Umar (rtd), in proper perspective.

“Our paths crossed when we became members of the Presidential Committee on the investigation on arms procurement. He was instrumental in getting some of the information that helped the committee to make significant breakthrough in its assignment.

“Beyond that, the relationship between Umar and myself is one of professional acquaintance, devoid of issues of conflict of interest. So, it comes to me with shock, the imputation by the DSS that we have a “mutually beneficial relationship”.

“This appears suggestive that Mohammed and I were involved in activities that could be said to be untoward. I certainly have no knowledge of such activities.

“The claim that EFCC documents, including EFCC letters addressed to the Vice President and being investigation reports on the activities of Emmanuel Kachikwu and his brother Dumebi Kachikwu, were found in his home during a search by the DSS came to me as a surprise.

“If that is correct, he should be made to disclose how he came by such documents. I never discussed my official duties with him let alone give him documents pertaining to investigations being conducted by the Commission.

“Interestingly, Mohammed was detained for several months by the DSS. In all those months, did he claim that I mandated him to commit any crime or that I was an accomplice to any crime? If there is any such claim, I will wholeheartedly like to be confronted with the allegation.

“It is interesting to note that when Mohammed was eventually charged to court, the charges against him were money laundering and illegal possession of firearms, and nothing related to my purported “shady” relationship with him.”

“Sir, it is important to situate my relationship with Commodore Mohammed Umar (rtd), in proper perspective. Our paths crossed when we became members of the Presidential Committee on the investigation on arms procurement. He was instrumental in getting some of the information that helped the committee to make significant breakthrough in its assignment. Beyond that, the relationship between Umar and myself is one of professional acquaintance, devoid of issues of conflict of interest. So, it comes to me with shock, the imputation by the DSS that we have a “mutually beneficial relationship”. This appears suggestive that Mohammed and I were involved in activities that could be said to be untoward. I certainly have no knowledge of such activities,” Magu said in latest memo to Malami.

He explained the circumstances in which EFCC files were found in his house after the removal of the pioneer Chairman of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

At this time, Magu was serving in the Police Force as the head of the Economic Governance Unit.

He said: “It is true that my residence was searched on the orders of Mrs. Farida Waziri, shortly after she succeeded Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as Chairman of the EFCC and some documents relating to cases under investigation were found in my house. At the time of the raid, I was yet to formally hand over to my successor, Umar Sanda, as head of the Economic Governance Unit.

“My schedule at the time warranted that I worked round the clock and it was impossible to conclude all assignments without working at home.

“The documents found in my house were actually found in my office bag where I kept documents relating to investigations. I was in the process of handing over and it would be wrong to suggest that I willfully kept the Commission’s files at home.

“Nevertheless, the incident was thoroughly investigated by the police as I was placed on suspension without pay for 20 months. But in the end, I was reprimanded, recalled and promoted to Assistant Commissioner of Police.

“It is important, sir, to draw your attention to the fact that some of us that worked closely with Ribadu were victimised after his exit.

“And my ordeal was orchestrated as punishment for being the chief investigative officer for most of the high-profile cases involving politically exposed persons some of whom became very influential in government at the time.”

On the N39.8 million apartment rented for him, Magu said it was false that the house was also furnished for N43 million.

He added: “I live in the official residence of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This accommodation, contrary to the report of the DSS, is not my private home, neither was it rented and furnished for me by Commodore Umar Mohammed (rtd).

“It was rented and furnished by the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory through the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, under the safe house scheme.

“It is also false that the house was rented for N20 million per annum and furnished for N43 million. The entire cost for both two-year rent and the furnishing of the house is N39.628 million.

“Details of the transaction are contained in the contract award letter and payment schedule which are attached to this letter.”

Buhari is expected to officially write the Senate next week on his position in the matter.

Whereas the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has declared that the latest indicting report from the Department of State Service, DSS, to the Ministry of Justice, on Ibrahim Magu, the embattled Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is a vindication of its position not to confirm Magu’s appointment, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has denied that his office has received any such fresh document.

The document, which is a scathing indictment of Magu, was widely circulated on Friday and is said to be the contents of a letter to the Minister of Justice cataloguing Magu’s poor sense of judgment and willingness to compromise official documents for personal interest, something which, it said, betrayed the high level of integrity that should be the watchword of the holder of such office as EFCC Chairman.

The letter was a follow-up to the security report earlier submitted to the Presidency and the Senate, which formed the basis of the latter’s refusal to screen and confirm Magu.   The letter, backing the documents, was also an earlier letter by the AGF, dated December 19, 2016, with reference number HAGF/DSS/2016/Vol1/7, which demanded for the basis for the security report in the first place.

In the letter from the DSS, signed by one Folashade Bello, for the Director-General, the DSS said it provided a copy of the confessional statement by Air Commodore Mohammed Umar, a suspect being prosecuted by the Service.  Salacious details of discoveries the DSS claimed were acts capable of compromising the acting chairman (now and if confirmed) were provided in the fresh report.

The letter also accused Magu of conniving with the retired Air Force personnel to embark on untoward acts, which gave him away as someone not qualified to hold the top office.

The report stated in part: “An officer appointed as Ag. Chairman of EFCC should by all means be one of impeccable credentials, with proven integrity and capacity to lead the nation’s fight against graft in high and low places.   Thus far, it is evident from Magu’s antecedents”, the report then alleged, “that he is by no means that kind of officer”.

But Malami, last night, cleared the air on the alleged new probe of Magu, saying there was no such enquiry.

We’re vindicated – Senate

Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, who in two days ago was alleged to have spoken for Senate President Bukola Saraki saying “I will short down Buhari’s government in 72 hours” without any retraction of such statement up till the time of filing this report, stated on Saturday that the leaked report of the DSS had vindicated the decision of the legislative chamber to reject the nomination as Chairman of EFCC.

In a statement in Abuja, Abdullahi stated: “Following several calls made to me today by journalists seeking my comments on the leaked report on Mr. Ibrahim Magu, which was more damning than the one submitted to us, I can only say that myself and my colleagues have been vindicated.

“From that report which is now public, it is obvious the DG DSS even tried to give Magu soft landing in the report that was sent to the Senate (earlier). The recent report is messier and shows that our decision not to confirm his nomination was right.

“We therefore call on all Nigerians to continue to have full confidence and trust in the Nigerian Senate as it discharges its responsibilities according to the letter and spirit of the Nigerian constitution”.

 “Interestingly, Mohammed was detained for several months by the DSS. In all those months, did he claim that I mandated him to commit any crime or that I was an accomplice to any crime? If there is any such claim, I will wholeheartedly like to be confronted with the allegation. It is interesting to note that when Mohammed was eventually charged to court, the charges against him were money laundering and illegal possession of firearms, and nothing related to my purported “shady” relationship with him,” Magu said.

What Sabi Abdullahi did not remember to do was to reconcile his latest comment to the statement by his Senate President who said the rejection of Magu was not based on the DSS report sent to the Senate. It is therefore not clear on what basis he was asking Nigerians to have full confidence and trust in “the Nigerian Senate” if even his comment at variance with that of his Senate President apparently laboring hard to clear the Senate from integrity problem it has been plunged into due to allegations of fraud and misrepresentations that are now in the open against the upper chamber none of which the nation’s highest legislative chamber has cleared instead engaging in diversionary tactics.

EFCC Chair not under new probe – AGF…denies receiving DSS report

Malami, in an exclusive chat with Sunday Vanguard, denied receiving any new communication from the DSS against Magu.

According to the said communication, which originated from a group which calls itself ‘Justice Advocacy’, and said to have been dispatched from the DSS to the AGF, Magu was not qualified to be made the boss of the anti-graft agency for failing integrity test.

Malami denied receiving such a communication from the DSS and said his office was unaware of any new issue against Magu.

Malami, in response to Sunday Vanguard’s enquiry, said: “No new investigation has been sanctioned by the Presidency and no new submission has been entertained and or received by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation in relation to the matter which has long been closed with the submission of the report over same to the Presidency.”

What some of The DEFENDER’s respondents concluded at was for an investigation into why a fresh but damning report by DSS indicting the Acting EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, which the AGF denied to have ever received, could have only been found with a group.

“How are we not to believe that this purported DSS report indicting Magu is just a concerted effort by the 100 percent anti-Buhari Senate to bring down all efforts that the President is making to truly kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria?  What you will find is DSS report showing face and the next people that will talk will be the Senate or some of their lawyers.  Why?  We want to know.  And this will not even clear the Senators of the integrity problem they already have with us, Nigerians.”  One of them said under strictly requested condition of anonymity.