Mr. Ibrahim Magu
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has debunked media reports that its Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, was arrested.
Spokesman of the commission, Mr Dele Oyewale, said in a statement that Magu was only invited by a “presidential panel reviewing the activities of the EFCC”.
Though the EFCC statement failed to explain why Magu was invited by the panel but insiders said the invitation was for him to clear the air of some financial discrepancies traced to the EFCC.
The panel, it was gathered, was not satisfied with the manner recovered funds and assets from public office holders were dispensed and disposed respectively.
Some members of the panel were miffed by what a source described as “unclear circumstances” under which some of the recovered funds were spent.
The case of the EFCC head office started by his predecessors but completed by Magu was also said to have caught the attention of the panel which considered the cost exorbitant.
Some members of the panel were said to have suspected instances of frivolous spending of recovered funds, something regarded in the Nigerian parlance as re-looting the loot.
Magu was said to have provided his perspective to the queries raised; but there were strong hints Monday that Magu may need to answer to more queries.
But Oyewale explained that Magu honoured the invitation voluntarily at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He added that the EFCC boss got the invitation while on his way to the Force Headquarters, Abuja, for a meeting.
“The EFCC’s boss was neither arrested nor forced to honour the invitation. A member of a legal team from the EFCC is also with him on the panel,“ he said.
The EFCC’s reaction came shortly after the Department of State Services (DSS), which is reported to have arrested Magu, also dismissed the arrest rumour by some online news sites.
“The DSS wishes to inform the public that it did not arrest Ibrahim Magu as reported by sections of the media,” DSS spokesman, Dr Peter Afunanya, said in a statement.
