Ibrahim Magu, the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has claimed that some powerful toes he
stepped on while doing his job were out to tarnish his image and destroy his
reputation.
Magu told the Presidential Committee On Audit Of Recovered
Assets, PCARA, that suspects and other criminal elements he prosecuted were
after him.
Magu’s claims were contained in a response he addressed to
the PCARA probing the mismanagement and lack of transparency in managing
recovered assets by the anti-corruption agency in the last 5 years.
The embattled suspended EFCC boss denied any wrongdoing
while in office, insisting that all he did was fight corruption to a standstill
in the country.
He said his traducers were out there publishing false
information about him on social media platforms.
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation
(AGF), Abubakar Malami, had in the petition he submitted to the PCARA claimed
that the lack of proper record keeping and discrepancies in the recovery
figures, was a dent on the anti-corruption drive as well as raising integrity
issues that can lead to loss of public confidence.
Part of Malami’s petition said, “For instance, EFCC stated
836 as the number of recovered real estate in the original returns it made to
Mr. President on 07/04/2017.
“However, in its 1st returns to PCARA on 13/12/2017, EFCC
gave the figure of 339, while in the 2nd returns to PCARA on 09/03/2018, it
stated the recoveries to be 504. The 1st and 2nd returns total 843.”
Responding to this, Magu, who was detained for about 10 days
after his arrest by the Department of State Services, DSS, told the panel that,
“In the exercise of my official functions as acting chairman of the Commission,
I have stepped on toes in ensuring that corruption is fought to a standstill in
Nigeria.
“Some of the suspects under investigation and prosecution
are always ganging up to fight me back, publishing false, untrue, malicious and
libellous allegations against me. I have never abused the office I am occupying
at the pleasure of Mr. President.”
“I have never personally enriched myself whilst performing
my official function. I challenge my accusers to produce any evidence of this
purported personal enrichment,” Magu said.
Arguing further, he claimed that under his watch, there were
no cases of mismanagement of recovered assets or funds.
“No assets were sold and the proceeds thereof converted.
There has been no mismanagement of or lack of transparency in the management of
recovered assets under my leadership of the Commission. There has been no
diversion of proceeds from recovered assets or personal enrichment on my part.
A careful investigation into what has been recovered and what has been paid
into the appropriate accounts will easily confirm this.
“I unequivocally deny these allegations as same are untrue
and merely calculated to tarnish my name, that of the Commission, and the giant
strides this administration has recorded in the fight against corruption and
recovery of the proceeds of corruption,” he stated.
Magu said he had never in his years of service put a dime of
the recovered funds to his personal use, challenging his accusers to produce
evidence of such fraudulent conversion.
The suspended EFCC boss said all his actions while in office
were documented and followed the prescribed procedures with necessary
approvals.
“I am innocent. I have served my country to the best of my
abilities with all sense of responsibility and integrity,” Magu insisted.
He maintained that the records of his achievements are there
for all to see.
“I respectfully invite the panel to note the stellar and
unprecedented achievements of the EFCC under my watch as the acting Chairman,”
he said
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