Buhari’s Chief Of Staff, Abba Kyari Moves To Remove EFCC Boss Magu


Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, along with the Director General of the Department of State Security (DSS) and newspaper publisher Nduka Obaigbena, has commenced a full-scale war against Ibrahim Magu, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Under the scheme, Magu will be replaced with a man, already identified, who is more amenable to the ways of Mr. Kyari and other kitchen cabinet persons.

Sources at the Presidency said there has been a cold war between Magu and members of the President’s kitchen cabinet, who seek to interfere with ongoing corruption cases at the EFCC.

Matters reportedly came to a head recently when SaharaReporters did an exposé that revealed how the Chief of Staff perverted an investigation that the commission had commenced against a powerful indigenous oil company, Sahara Energy, with Mr. Kyari directly accusing Magu of being the brain behind the leaking of the story.

Related issues of contention include the planned commencement of the trial of Jide Omokore, a shady businessman known to have been involved in multi-billion oil deals with former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke. The Chief of Staff had apparently assured Mr. Omokore that he would not be prosecuted by the EFCC.

Our sources revealed that Magu’s letter of nomination to the Senate for confirmation was delayed by the Chief of Staff and the Attorney General of the Federation because of Magu’s “intransigence.”

On the part of the DSS, sources within the administration say Magu was held to have stepped on their toes by constantly questioning why they usurped the role of EFCC in carrying out raids into the homes of corrupt former government officials, which is the domain of the EFCC. The DSS reportedly raided at least 30 homes of officials and aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan, but only managed to deliver a meager N47m and $1.943m. Worse still, some of the monies recovered were never delivered to the federal government treasury and during reconciliation, some of the foreign currencies were found to be fake.

In that connection, the sources cited the February raid on the Abuja home of the son of Ngozi Olojeme, who was axed as Chair of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund after Buhari came to power. While the DSS agents reportedly found $500,000, only $50,000 was delivered to the Treasury. Olojeme was never prosecuted either, where she would have revealed exactly how much money she lost.

The tension between the EFCC and the DSS grew to unimaginable proportions until yesterday when the DSS raided the home of a member of the Arms Probe Committee, Air Commodore Umar Muhammed (rtd.) who reportedly had $1.5million hidden in the premises in Abuja from bribes he purportedly received on behalf of other panel members. The reporting of the story appeared in Thisday newspaper, owned by Nduka Obaigbena, the publisher of which had been forced by the EFCC to return monies he collected from the office of the National Security Adviser for a contract that was never implemented.

Knowledgeable sources in government and law enforcement told SaharaReporters last night that Obaigbena was stopped from traveling to the United Kingdom last weekend by airport immigration officials who told him he was on the EFCC no-fly list.

The sources say Mr. Kyari, a former member of the Editorial Board of ThisDay, then intervened, following which Obaigbena was eventually allowed to travel the next day. He is now in London. Sources at the EFCC said that by securing Obaigbena’s travels, Mr. Kyari, and the DSS DG apparently obtained his cooperation to commence a media war on the chairperson of the agency.

Despite Obaigbena being on the security watch list of the EFCC, Mr. Kyari and Information Minister Lai Mohammed recently organized a high-profile meeting between President Buhari and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) at the Presidential Villa in which the publisher featured prominently. Mr. Mohammed had his issues with Magu as well, as the EFCC boss had frozen about N10b in funds of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) as former officials there began last-minute looting. Mohammed intervened to get Magu to unfreeze the account so that it could be used while he awaited approval of his budget, but Magu refused.

The minister also reportedly sent a request to the EFCC chairman to return monies retrieved from Obaigbena and other newspaper proprietors who were caught in the $2.1b scandal, but Magu also refused to budge. Furthermore, Mr. Magu and his officials are said to have extended their probe to include others in the media that include another publisher, Comfort Obi, whose account was also frozen. SaharaReporters has it on indisputable authority that the Chief of Staff and Mr. Mohammed took those proprietors to meet with President Buhari, but it is unclear if he gave them any concessions.

ThisDay’s role in releasing information about the arrest of the retired Air Commodore accused of receiving a bribe was consolidated as his travel ban was lifted, one source revealed.

Speaking to SaharaReporters by phone from London on Wednesday, Obaigbena confirmed that he was actually stopped at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport last Sunday but claimed it was because of an EFCC warrant left at the airport last December. He denied that anyone intervened to facilitate his travel thereafter, but did not state how the warrant was overturned except saying that the head of the Immigration department in Abuja apologized to him by phone. Asked about his relationship with Kyari, he admitted that Kyari once served on the Editorial Board of his newspaper

SaharaReporters has learned that DSS is making moves to invite Magu for interrogation and possibly detain him claiming that retired Air Commodore Umar Muhammad from Bauchi took $300k from some persons under corruption probe so that they could hold a meeting with Magu during his visit to IDP camps in Maiduguri two weeks ago. It is unclear if Magu had such meetings.

Air Commodore Umar Muhammad appears to be the best shot yet at Magu from the onslaught launched by Abba Kyari and his collaborators.

SaharaReporters learnt that the Arms Procurement Investigation Committee had also been fractured along lines of bias, as pressure was mounted on them not to probe a former Chief of Army, Lt General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, who is now the Minister of Internal Affairs. Magu and a few others are said to have favored inviting and investigating him.

Crying foul, the EFCC in a press statement on Tuesday contended of the ThisDay report linking the agency to corruption associated with retired Air Commodore Umar, that this is simply a case of corruption fighting back.

People knowledgeable about the retired Air Commodore said he was married to late oil Minister Rilwan Lukman’s daughter and that he has always lived a flamboyant lifestyle close to former Presidents, including late President Umar Yar’Adua. They characterized him as a conduit for passing funds to other Heads of State and governments in Africa. During former President Jonathan’s era, for instance, he was said to have been a go-between with several African Heads of State, particularly those of Niger and Ghana. He runs a massive office in Abuja where he refers to himself as “Don”.

His posh home in Abuja reportedly has at least 50 luxury cars, and he was regularly in the company of high-profile local and international visitors. Former FCT Minister Bala Mohammed was a regular visitor to his home, and he reportedly was involved in passing money to the Chadian government during the botched Boko Haram negotiation involving Hassan Tukur, the former Principal Secretary to President Jonathan, who was arrested two weeks ago.

It is unclear how the retired Air Commodore, given such profile, was put on a panel by the Buhari government to investigate high-profile corruption cases.

If Magu is removed from the leadership of the EFCC, the Chief of Staff and his collaborators plan to replace him with another police officer so far simply identified as “Abdulrahman,” an instructor at the Nigerian Police College in Kaduna.

“Abdulrahman” is said to have once worked with Farida Waziri, during the darkest days of impunity and corruption in Nigeria, and appears to be the kitchen cabinet’s perfect replacement for Magu as they will control him just as Farida was controlled by Umaru Yar’Adua’s Aso Rock gang.

The DSS probe, our sources were unanimous, is aimed at generating a report that would end Magu’s tenure.

The vultures are gathering now,” a political analyst said in New York on Wednesday.

“If Buhari cannot find the conviction to chop off the head of the crocodile he has reared as a pet in Aso Rock,” he continued, “ his anti-corruption claims will be in silent mode by the time he returns from the United Nations General Assembly in September, and will be the laughing stock of the world by the time he reads his Christmas speech.

”http://saharareporters.com/2016/06/22/buhari%E2%80%99s-chief-staff-abba-kyari-moves-remove-efcc-boss-magu

chief of staff should be called to order.let d efcc chief do his job.

Seems like chief of staff needs sacking. Who does he think he is

Issues hmm

Magun must stay

I am yet to see the change

So this so called money they are recovering is being stolen anyways with only small percentages actually making it back to the FG coffers?

??

What kind of stupidity is that?

Then you foolish backward zombies want to scream change.

Is this change? They are just stealing what had been stolen. Congrats on your change... and enjoy your hardship of life which has become back breaking!

Fight against Kwaraption is the only achievement of this Buhari's administration but clearly we can see a lot of human intervention and interruption which turns the fight against kwaruption into a witch-hunt.
Anybody who interferes or is seen as interfering in this fight should be excused from this government in order to retain its integrity.
Those hawks Looting the loot must be exposed and prosecuted unless this fight against kwaruption will be the biggest scam of the century.

[size=28pt]Magu is doing very well at his job



And you should all pray, he remain there.
Only Easterners were part of Jonathan government , so the police can only arrest Easterners .

.[/size]

Corrupt people probing corrupt people. No probing of Lt Gen Dambazzau because he is now an APC member.

Corruption fighting back

Ademusiwa1:
[size=28pt]Magu is doing very well at his job



And you should all pray, he remain there.
Only Easterners were part of Jonathan government , so the police can only arrest Easterners .

.[/size]

but so far, they have fingered more northerners and Westerners in corruption cases.

magu sef abi maagunus desverves to go since amaechi,tinubu,aisha buhari and co is still walking freely. no body dares to go againt buhari and his cronies.is that not corruption on its own. Hypocrisy is when EFCC and DSS is serving buhari interest instead of the interest of over 200 million nigerians. Nkita Ara

It was always going to com to dis... One way or d other EFCC will eventually bark at some of dem even though it definitely won't bite.. D corruption war has always been one sided as d presidency would want to kip a leash on d EFCC to avoid embarrassments irrespective of whatever double standards dey set.

If corruption fight is not absolute, then it is a total waste of time as recovered funds will be equally looted by those given a pass.

lalasticla fp pls people should comment more on it oooo.pls do d needful.

I don't like this chief of staff and the minister for justice, they seems too have loads of baggage.

May God help us

OlujobaSamuel:
I don't like this chief of staff and the minister for justice, they seems too have loads of baggage.

very true, corruption is indeed fighting back

efcc chief is excellently doing great job here kudos to magu. more freezing of account are still coming. corruption should be fight to standstill.God bless pmb.

Until Buhari probes Amaechi....Fashola......Fayemi


then this corruption fiqht is useless to me....

What a wonderful country this my country is!

Saints are the rarest breed of human being you could find in this my obodo country.

I always know Mr President is uncompromising but all this his cronies that will be using eye-service to get favors from him??

I think for the sake of posterity and to protect his good name long after he's gone, Mr President should try and weed many of those around him as much as possible, he should try and drop the ethnic bias mentality he has and look more inward for his own sake and sake of the entire country.

I like PMB, but am not comfortable with many of those closest to him. So they did during Yar Adua's govt..."the cabals", "the kitchen cabinets"

Action movie for naija

Confused people running the government

Lia Muhammad. ole
Mugu ole
Daura. Ole
Kyari. Ole
Everybody oo. What?

Heheheheh.. Dem don dey drag for party (efcc) chairmanship. I hope say d battle no go dey messy like markafi and sherriff own

.

Lol... one sided corruption fight

Corruption will fight back left right and center.

ok na