AGF, Abubakar Malami and EFCC Boss, Ibrahim Magu
By Our Reporter
The frosty relationship between the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu has taken a new turn as the former reportedly wrote a letter to President Muhammudu Buhari recommending the sack of the latter
The AGF wants Magu relieved of his job on the grounds that he diverted recovered loot, insubordination and misconduct.
Malami allegedly included a short list of three candidates for consideration to replace Magu.
But Magu denied ever diverting recovered loot.
Magu’s supporters within the Presidency are of the opinion that ” removing Magu at this time when he has given muscle to Buhari’s anti-corruption fight would be a mistake.”
“It is painful that the EFCC boss is facing certain powerful forces who have decided to remove him in spite of his remarkable achievements,”
Sources hinted this reporter that given the weight of Malami’s allegations against Magu, the president may be inclined “to set up a probe panel that will look into the veracity of the allegations and make necessary recommendations.”
“I can authoritatively tell you that though Magu has survived previous plots to remove him, the AGF’s legal opinion remains the deadliest plot to get Magu out of the EFCC as AGF’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….. This is because the office of the AGF is the supervising ministry of the EFCC and so his legal opinion cannot be treated with levity’
“For example, Malami alleged accounting gaps or discrepancies of figures concerning the recovered assets, claiming that Magu was not transparent enough in the management of recovered assets…” A source revealed
A Magu supporter said:” It will interest you to note that Malami accused the EFCC boss of disclosing a total naira recovery of N504 billion but lodged N543 billion in the Recovery Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Incidentally, this exceeded the disclosed figures by N39 billion.”‘What should be a point of commendation is now being used against Magu’.
Another source said “Malami also accused Magu of blatant display of arrogance and insubordination to him as supervising minister of the EFCC.”
The source maintained that most of the recovered assets by the EFCC were allegedly sold by Magu without the knowledge of anyone.
“But it is unfortunate that this claim is at variance with the public auction of assets by the EFCC,“ Said one of Magu supporters
