AIG Ibrahim Magu, the former Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been accused of abandoning 14 fraud cases involving N118 billion and $309 million respectively, according to findings by the Presidential Panel which investigated him.
The EFCC, under Magu’s supervision, was also accused of failing to remit another sum of N48 billion loot recovered in foreign and local currencies in the final report submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2020, a report by TheCable stated.
The panel, led by the former Appeal Court President, Justice Ayo Salami, was formed to investigate the EFCC from May 2015 to May 2020, when Magu was in-charge.
The report has now been submitted to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
According to the newspaper, quoting presidential sources, a panel to come up with the White Paper will be empanelled soon.
The former EFCC boss was accused of mishandling the recovered loot and unilaterally selling seized assets to his associates and cronies.
The report examined over 100 witnesses’ written and oral testimonies, having completed nationwide physical verification of recovered forfeited assets, which included real estates, automobiles, vessels, jewerleries and other non-cash, as well as cash assets.
According to an examination of the report of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA) obtained by TheCable, the anti-graft commission had submitted contradictory figures on the total number of recovered real estate.
The EFCC under the watch of the suspended Acting Chairman in its submission to PCARA reported N46,038,882,509.87 as being the foreign currency equivalent recovered by the commission between May 29, 2015, and November 22, 2018,” the report stated.
“The EFCC, however, only produced evidence of lodgements of N37,533,764,195.66, leaving a shortfall of N8,505,118,314.21.
“The EFCC reported to PCARA a total naira recovery of N504,154,184,744.04; the actual bank lodgement of the naira recoveries was, however, N543,511,792,863.47.
“That EFCC failed to produce before PCARA the evidence/record of the difference of N39,357,608,119.43.”
Furthermore, the panel claimed that Magu abandoned multi-million dollar fraud cases involving high-profile individuals and transferred some commission officials who had been assigned to investigate such cases.
He was also accused of disobeying court orders and presidential directives.
“Between 2016 and 2019, fourteen (14) procurement fraud cases involving N117,972,209,035 and $309,151,419 were abandoned under Ibrahim Magu’s watch,” the judicial commission disclosed.
“The commission observed from its findings that prosecutorial decisions by Ibrahim Magu on case files were based on his personal whims, as against the law and facts.
“The commission also notes the prevalence of widespread corruption, abuse of power and pervasive impunity in the running of the EFCC,” it said.
The panel also stated that the commission had poor record keeping on forfeited assets.
The panel stated that under Magu’s supervision, the EFCC seized eight plazas, but the commission reported no forfeiture of any of such plazas.
Furthermore, “three jets were listed as being in interim forfeiture, but the panel was unable to locate them; 21 hotels were reported to have been forfeited on an interim order, but only eight were discovered.
“Only eight of the 42 fuel stations reported to have been forfeited on an interim order could be verified,” the panel stated.
According to the report, the vessels seized by the commission were abandoned and sank in the sea, carrying a large amount of petroleum products.
“In 2016, Magu halted the process of disposing of two finally forfeited vessels, MT Good Success with 1,459 metric tons of PMS; and MT Askaris with 3,423,097 metric tons of crude…the cargoes eventually sank…Magu also asked the navy to release two vessels conveying illegally refined AGO to their owners,” the panel said.
“Thirteen water vehicles (vessels) handed over to the EFCC by the Nigerian Navy, out of a total number of 154 vessels, have submerged (sunk) with tons of contents.
“The submissions made by the EFCC before the commission shows that, from inception to date, the total number of non-cash assets recovered under final forfeiture was 3133.
“The analysis of the recoveries shows that some of the assets were disposed of, forfeited to a third party or negligently lost.
“The commission conducted physical verification of recovered assets across the country from 1st-27th October 2020.
“The outcome of the exercise was revealing as some of the forfeited assets have been lost, deteriorated, physically possessed by the suspects, or could not be traced and in some instances remain in occupation years after their final forfeiture.
“The EFCC reported disposal of 275 real estate, the judicial commission only confirmed 76 disposal.”
In July 2020, while Magu was the acting chairman of the EFCC, he was arrested, detained and suspended.
He had appeared before the Salami-led panel probing allegations of gross misconduct against him.
It was earlier reported that the panel recommended Magu’s sack and prosecution over allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
It has been almost two years since the panel submitted its report, but most of its recommendations are yet to be implemented.
Curiously, Magu was promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) by the Police Service Commission (PSC) a few weeks before he retired, despite such humongous indictment.
