President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, to probe some former chairmen of the commission, following discovery of alleged shady deals during their tenure.
According to Saturday Telegraph,
this is sequel to the assumption of office by the Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF) and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami. One of our
sources said; “The lateness in the appointment of the Attorney- General had
delayed the presidential directive, because the office has to legally issue the
order.”
Investigations by our correspondent
however, revealed that with the appointment of the AGF, there was a renewed vigour
on the anti-graft war, and acting on orders from the Presidency, there was a
fresh directive from the office of the AGF asking the anti-graft body to look
into the activities of the past regimes in the commission.
“This is in furtherance of a probe
on the regime of Ibrahim Lamorde instituted by the senate over alleged sharp
practices at the commission into assets seized and sold by the anti-graft
agency in which, properties were allegedly converted for personal use, with the
aid of some top members of the commission’s hierarchy,” one of the sources
said.
Sources within the office of the
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, disclosed to Saturday Telegraph that
“the President was not happy with revelations coming out from the senate over
the Lamorde issue and he was therefore set to cleanse the EFCC of alleged
corruption. But the move was stalled because the Attorney General was yet to be
appointed as at then.”
Though it was gathered that there
was a similar directive towards the tail end of the Goodluck Jonathan
administration, the probe never saw the light of the day, as those at the helms
of affairs then were said to have silenced all efforts by the commission to
cleanse itself. Some staff of the commission confided in Saturday Telegraph
that the latest attempt is a way of revisiting the last exercise and dusting
the reports that were hitherto swept under the carpet.
One of the sources in the Presidency
said the issue got the attention of Buhari when the Senate President, Dr.
Bukola Saraki, recently inaugurated a committee to probe the status of all
assets seized by the commission, after the senate received petitions against
Lamorde. The President was then said to have called for the files of the probe
by the commission and asked Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, who is a lawyer and
a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to look at the legal angle to the probe
before passing it to the Attorney General.
It was gathered that the interim
report of a probe panel instituted by the senate revealed that a lot of money
raised from donor agencies, and proceeds from some of the prosecuted cases,
since the establishment of the commission in 2004, could not be accounted for
by the anti-graft body, a situation that has become worrisome to the
presidency.
Earlier investigations had shown
that apart from the alleged mismanagement of huge funds from donor agencies, a
lot of assets seized from some corrupt politicians were sold at give-away
prices to some cronies, friends and relations of some EFCC staff and agents,
while “proceeds from property confiscated and sold have allegedly disappeared.”
The report also revealed that some
buildings hitherto seized in prime areas, such as Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt
and Abuja have been sold off without the knowledge of the Presidency and the
Ministry of Justice, which oversee the affairs of the commission. The source
also revealed that the report indicted some past bosses of the commission,
saying “they did not account for the money recovered from some accused
persons.” It was learnt that Buhari was not comfortable with the way some
senators had been speaking against the commission, a move that is seen as a
dent on the anticorruption posture of the present administration.
Saturday Telegraph investigations
further revealed that there were documents, tendered to the Presidency by the
new leadership under Ibrahim Magu, which were backed by reports from the
Department of Security Services (DSS), to confirm claims of financial
recklessness allegedly perpetuated by some past leadership at the EFCC.
It was learnt that there was a
damning report on all seizures during a particular tenure in the commission,
but a successor in office deliberately looked the other way, not wanting to
rock the boat.
However, when contacted, the Head of
Media at the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, promised to call back, but did not as at
press time. He also did not respond to text messages sent to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment