The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has alleged that Acting Chairman of the Anti-Graft Agency, Ibrahim Magu, is sabotaging the anti-corruption war which he ought to be leading the fight against.
In a statement he issued on Wednesday, Malami alleged that the “EFCC leadership has manipulated and misused intelligence given to the agency to the detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crime in Nigeria.”
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The AGF disclosed that this can be seen in the fact that Magu appears not to be bothered about the suspension of Nigeria from the Egmont Group, which is currently made up of 156 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), representing 156 countries and serves as a platform for exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to him, the EFCC boss is also frustrating all ongoing efforts to ensure lifting of the suspension so as to avoid eventual expulsion from the Egmont Group.
The statement issued by the Media Aide to the Minister, Salihu Othman Isah, reads: “the EFCC is now in a state of paranoia, as it dreads the effort of the government to have an independent NFIU, which it has stood against stoically since 2006.
“As it presently stands, the NFIU Staff are all deployed by the EFCC to serve in the interest of whoever is its current chairman. This has to stop if it must conform to the new thinking and global best practice. Nigeria cannot be an island of its own. It cannot fight corruption in isolation.
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