Anthony Iwuoma
Following grave allegations of corruption by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, against the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday called on the EFFCC boss to step aside.
The party described the AGF memo as further exposing the deception and hypocrisy of the government led by President Muhammadu Buhari in its anti-corruption war.
Malami had advised Mr. President to relieve Magu of his post, citing various offences “ranging from diversion of recovered loot to insubordination and misconduct.”
In a statement issued by the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party added that no embarrassment in the country’s history could be likened to the embarrassment of the head of its anti-corruption agency “being dragged on allegation of diversion of recovered funds and fraudulent sale of assets seized by the agency.”
The party said Malami’s memo “exposed the credentials of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption architecture, rubbished his standing as Africa Union, AU, anti-corruption champion and shattered our national integrity in the international arena.
“The world can now see that the much hyped anti-corruption fight of the Buhari administration, has been nothing but a huge fraud and a racket by certain persons in the APC administration to harass political opponents, intimidate and extort money from innocent Nigerians and steal public funds.
“Nigerians and the world have further seen why corruption has worsened under the Buhari administration, as copiously documented by credible international organization, including the Transparency International, TI.
“Indeed, our party, Nigerians across board and, of course, members of the international community, have completely lost confidence in President Buhari’s capacity to fight corruption as he has not demonstrated the littlest effort against corruption since he came into office in 2015.
“Instead, Mr. President had continued to run a system that condones corrupt practices by officials of his administration while providing cover for individuals indicted for corruption including those who are now serving as cabinet ministers and other federal appointees in his government.
“The PDP recalled that President Buhari had insisted on Magu as the EFCC Chairman despite his rejection by the Senate over reports by the Department of State Services, DSS, which raised certain integrity issues against him.
“The party further recalled that the DSS report, which was read out on the floor of the Senate, allegedly stated that ‘Magu has failed the integrity test and will eventually constitute a liability to the anti-corruption stand of the current government.’
“Our party therefore holds the latest report coming from none other than the Attorney General of the Federation; the EFCC’s supervising minister, who believably has unhindered access to facts and documents related to the anti-graft issues, must be received by President Buhari as a huge demand on him to clean up the system.
“Moreover, following the allegation of diversion of recovered funds coming from the nation’s Attorney General, the EFCC chairman has lost all moral rectitude to preside over our nation’s anti-corruption agency to investigate and prosecute others until he comes clean of these horrible allegations.
“However, given this administration’s history of concealment and cover for indicted officials, our party enjoins the National Assembly to immediately constitute a joint ad-hoc committee and commence an independent investigation into these alleged disgraceful acts which have the potency of collapsing our nation’s integrity before the comity of nations.
“Our party also calls on Mr. Magu to immediately step aside and submit himself for an independent investigation in order to clear his name,” the statement concluded.
