ABUBAKAR Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the acting Chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu over allegations of corruption.

The Attorney General is also alleging that the acting EFCC chairman of insubordination to his office and diversion of assets recovered by the Commission, as well as lack of transparency and discrepancies of figures about recovered assets.

Malami’s demand for the removal of Magu was contained in a memo written to President Buhari on Thursday, according to This Day.

One of such allegations, according to the publication was that the EFCC boss disclosed a total recovery of N504 billion but lodged N543 billion in the Recovery Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The other one is that most of the recovered assets by the EFCC were allegedly sold by Magu without the knowledge of anyone.

The report says the Minister’s letter to the president contained 22 weighty allegations that require Buhari’s decision on whether or not to send Magu’s name to the Senate for confirmation or replace him.

According to the report, the Minister had made a recommendation of three candidates from which the president could appoint a replacement for Magu when he is finally removed.

The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice is the Supervisory Ministry to the EFCC, and Malami according to the memo alleged that Magu was not carrying the ministry along in his actions.

Magu has survived previous plots to remove him as the acting Chairman of EFCC, while the National Assembly also declined to confirm him twice as the substantive chairman of the Commission.

In a report sent to the 8th Assembly in 2017 by the Department of State Service (DSS) upon which the Senate declined to confirm Magu, August 2008, it was reported that some sensitive EFCC documents which were not supposed to be at his disposal were discovered.

“He was subsequently redeployed to the police after days of detention and later suspended from the Force. In December 2010, the Police Service Commission 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,” part of the letter read.

The DSS report largely indicted him for unwholesome practices.

The report stated that Magu often embarked on air trips with a retired Air Commodore Umar Mohammed who the DSS tagged ‘questionable businessman and ally of the subject who has subsequently arrested by the Service.’

According to the DSS report, Magu traveled with a particular Managing Director of a bank who was being investigated by EFCC for complicity in funds allegedly stolen by former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Apart from spending time with persons being investigated by the Commission, the report stated that Magu was dismissed by the Police Commission for ‘action prejudicial to state security, withholding of EFCC files, sabotage, unauthorised removal of EFCC files and acts unbecoming of a Police officer’.

Earlier in December 2015, the same 8th National Assembly refused to confirm Magu as Chairman of the Commission following Buhari’s recommendation.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/malami-seeks-removal-of-efcc-boss-magu-over-diversion-of-recovered-loots/