Tony Amokeodo, special assistant on media and publicity to
Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), says there is a “desperate attempt to splash mud” on the anti-graft czar.
Amokeodo said this in response to a critical piece on Magu
published in a national newspaper.
He said under Magu’s watch, the EFCC has recorded
unprecedented achievements, highlighting number of convictions and recoveries
made.
Magu’s aide said while international agencies like the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Metropolitan Police, Scotland Yard, International Police have all rated the EFCC
under Magu highly, “several corruption- bursting agencies across Africa have had
their officers trained by the EFCC. The
record of convictions and recoveries made so far under Magu’s watch is simply
unprecedented”.
“Only on Tuesday, the FBI gave an Award of Excellence to
Magu, following the collaboration between the EFCC and the FBI in ‘Operation
Rewired’, aimed at tackling the menace of Cybercrimes, especially the Business
Email Compromise (BEC). It is instructive to state that under Magu’s watch, the
EFCC secured unprecedented convictions as follows : 2015-103; 2016- 195; 2017- 190;
2018-314; 2019- 1,281 and 2020- 122 and we are still counting,” Amokeodo wrote.
“A large number of choice properties have been recovered
from looters while billions of naira, millions of dollars, pounds sterling and
other foreign currencies were recovered and forfeited to the federal
government. Do these records suggest that the EFCC’s helmsman lacks elemental
knowledge?”
Below is Amokeodo full response
Abimbola Adelakun’s “The Real Trouble With Magu” in her
Thursday, March 5, 2020 Back Page Column in The PUNCH, came as
a rude shock. For a national
newspaper with the history and mileage of The PUNCH, such a libelous, defamatory and uncouth
characterisation of the Acting Executive Chairman of the Economic And Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim
Magu, as a “dingbat”, “dim-witted” and “he did not get his job by merit” by a
columnist that knows next to nothing about the operational technicalities of
the EFCC and the resourcefulness of its Chief Executive, is not only brazen but tragic display of
ignorance.
Admittedly, Mr. Magu
made a metaphorical allusion to the dreaded coronavirus in his speech at the
Passing Out Parade (POP) of Detective Inspector Course Five at the Nigerian
Defence Academy, Kaduna, as being a
trickle-down effect of poorly- managed health care system. His inferential linkage of the disease with the
menace of corruption was not “banalisation of corruption by relating it to unfortunate
circumstances”, as claimed by
Adelakun, but figurative emphasis of the
dastardly dimension and monstrous proportion the scourge of corruption has
assumed in our nation.
Incidentally, Mr Magu’s experiences as a world-renowned
anti-graft fighter puts him in better stead to know the dimension which
corruption has placed Nigeria as a country and his unequivocal comparison of
the pestilential affliction which coronavirus represents with corruption.
Like every well- meaning Nigerian, Abimbola Adelakun has every right to disagree
with the EFCC Chairman on his views on anti-corruption fight, but such
disagreement should never assume the degree of libel, defamation of character,
derogation and indecency that she demonstrated in her jaundiced opinion.
It is preposterous and patently libellous for Adelakun to
recklessly impugn the hard-earned integrity of Mr Magu and maliciously assert
that Magu ” did not get his job on merit”. It may be appropriate to ask: What
does Adelakun know about economic and financial crimes in the first
instance? What does she know about
investigation of such crimes? How
equipped is she to know whether Mr. Magu got his job on merit or not? What empirical facts are available to her to
evaluate the performance of the EFCC boss on his job? Is Adelakun more
adequately informed about law enforcement and anti- corruption fight than the
United States Federal Bureau of Investigations,
FBI, Metropolitan Police, Scotland Yard, International Police and other global
agencies that have always scored the EFCC under Magu’s watch highly? Is the ability to string sentences together
in the name of column writing enough competence for her to primitively adjudge a crack detective like Mr. Magu unfit
for his job?
It is incredible to read such a libelous and defamatory
posers like: ” How did it happen that
someone so lacking in elemental knowledge superintends the anti-corruption
initiative in Nigeria? He did not get his job on merit, he knows his assessment
for his continued fit for that office is not based on superior achievements
and, therefore, he has no motivation whatsoever to improve his intellect.”
But the facts available in the public domain about Mr.
Magu’s breath-taking achievements so far in EFCC make such a surmise by
Adelakun baseless and empty. Today, the
EFCC is the leading anti- corruption agency in Africa. Several corruption- bursting agencies across
Africa have had their officers trained by the EFCC. The record of convictions and recoveries made
so far under Magu’s watch is simply unprecedented.
Only on Tuesday, the FBI gave an Award of Excellence to
Magu, following the collaboration between the EFCC and the FBI in “Operation
Rewired”, aimed at tackling the menace of Cybercrimes, especially the Business
Email Compromise (BEC). It is instructive to state that under Magu’s watch, the
EFCC secured unprecedented convictions as follows : 2015-103; 2016- 195; 2017-
190; 2018-314; 2019- 1,281 and 2020- 122 and we are still counting.
A large number of choice properties have been recovered from
looters while billions of naira, millions of dollars, pounds sterling and other
foreign currencies were recovered and forfeited to the federal government. Do
these records suggest that the EFCC’s helmsman lacks elemental knowledge?
It is absurd for Adelakun and her sponsors, no matter their grievances, to cast
aspersions on the leadership of the country.
Adelakun further took her reckless commentaries to a far more
objectionable degree by taking up issues with President Muhammadu Buhari in her
desperate bid to splash mud on the EFCC’s Chairman. Hear her:
“No idea is so stupid that it cannot be passed off with Buhari as long
as you blame it on corruption”.
Does Adelakun think that President Buhari does not know what
it takes to combat corrupt practices?
Adelakun’s insulting incursions into the capabilities of key figures in
the President’s cabinet are regrettably insulting. According to her, “It should
be a thing of wonder that a single administration like this present regime
managed to headhunt, appoint, and retain people who have such a moronic grasp
of their jobs. But no, all of that idiocy is pretty consistent with the
character of the government that hired them”.
This is simply unconscionable and unacceptable. There is no
intellectuality of any form in any kind of generalisation. For the information of Adelakun and her
sponsors, Mr. Magu comes top as one figure in Nigeria that not only knows his
onions, but has become a nightmare to every corrupt Nigerian.
The commission is quite aware that the attack from a
character like Adelakun is part of sponsored smear campaigns to tarnish the
hard-earned integrity of Mr Magu and the commission. But the EFCC would not be
deterred in its work by the effusion of ignorance expressed in what should be
an otherwise professional medium like The PUNCH.
To rein in every submission on this issue, Magu has no trouble of any kind. He is a seasoned investigator and
accomplished anti-corruption czar doing his best to salvage terrible situations
caused by corrupt practices in Nigeria. His team comprises the best and
brightest we can get anywhere in the country.
To even think that Adelakun does not know the profile of the media
handlers of Mr. Magu is another ridiculous portrayal of her shallowness.
Can you imagine a former correspondent with The PUNCH before
becoming a columnist saying this to her senior colleagues: “Magu’s rather tepid
speech about corruption suggests that he is not only defective, he is also
surrounded by mediocre speech writers who operate on the same wavelength of
intellection as he does and will not risk self-improvement lest they outshine
their boss.”
Throwing a jab at those who could teach her the mechanics of
column writing is an unintelligent cut and shameful. I also wish to state with
high sense of responsibility that Adelakun lacks the authority to rubbish the
achievements of the EFCC under Magu’s watch. For the avoidance of doubt,
delivery of speech cannot be used to measure the effectiveness of the war
against corruption and cast aspersion on
the remarkable records the Commission has painstakingly made in the last four
years.
Nigerians should know that Adelakun’s postulation is another
inventing form of corruption fighting back, using the platform of ignorance and
sheer mischief. Be that as it may,
Adelakun has crossed the red line and the EFCC will definitely meet her
and The PUNCH in court on the facts that have emboldened her to claim that Magu
is not fit for his job. An immediate
retraction of her libellous and defamatory words may save the day for her and
the newspaper. For now, Mr Magu remains unfazed and focused on
winning the war against corrupt practices.
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