Senate rejects Ibrahim Magu’s nomination as EFCC Chairman

By Olasunkanmi Adebola

 

 

Following the security report before it, Senate on Wednesday rejected the confirmation of the nomination of Mr. Ibrahim Magu as Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).
‎The Senate however, confirmed the nomination of the other four members of the EFCC and referred them for further screening.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo had in July 2016 when President Buhari was on 10 day vacation
The Presidency had in July written the Senate, seeking the screening and confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the EFCC.
The letter was signed by Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo in his capacity as acting President when President Muhammadu Buhari was in the United Kingdom on a 10-day medical vacation.
President Buhari appointed Mr. Magu acting chair of the EFCC after the removal of Ibrahim Lamorde on November 9, 2015.
Mr. Lamorde, a police officer, was removed four years after he took over as chairman of the agency.
He worked earlier as the director of operations before he was appointed head by former President Goodluck Jonathan on November 23, 2011, after former chairperson, Farida Waziri, was removed.
Magu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, is a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption and was a former Head of the Economic Governance Unit (EGU) of the anti-graft agency.
Mr. Magu was one of the early recruits into the EFCC by the pioneer chairman of the commission, Nuhu Ribadu. He is seen by peers as an incorruptible and courageous officer and then made the head of the sensitive EGU, a unit in charge of investigations of senior public officials.
As head of the EGU, some of the investigations Mr. Magu spearheaded include the role of former Kwara State Governor and serving senator, Bukola Saraki, in the collapse of Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria, and James Ibori, former Governor of Delta State, who was convicted for money laundering in the United Kingdom.
In August 2008, Mr. Magu was accused of illegally keeping case files of top politicians being investigated by the commission. His house in Abuja was searched and his property carted away by operatives of the EFCC acting under the directive of Mrs. Waziri.
He was subsequently re-deployed to the police after days of detention with nothing incriminating found against him. He was later suspended from the police, going without salaries for several months.
Following his appointment as Chairman of the EFCC in 2011, Mr. Lamorde made the return of Mr. Magu to the EFCC a top priority. Both men had worked together at the commission when Mr. Lamorde served as head of operations of the agency.
In a letter written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) on March 19, 2012, and titled “Re: Postings/Transfer and secondments of police officers to the EFCC,” Mr. Lamorde put Mr. Magu as top on the list of police officers he wanted to be deployed to the EFCC.
But when the police boss was to confirm the deployment of the officers, Mr. Magu’s name was conspicuously absent.
Mr. Lamorde eventually had his way after then President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly intervened in Mr. Magu’s case.