By Jackson Udom
More facts have emerged on why the now embattled Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, was forcefully arrested by officers and men of the Department of State Security (DSS), and dragged before the Presidential Investigation Panel on recovered loot, on Monday.
Despite denial of his arrest by the security personels, PeesReporters reliably gathered that he was actually arrested and grilled before his whereabouts became unknown.
A reliable source, who is practically in the know about Magu’s arrest and summon before the Panel, said the power-that-be, had to move against the unconfirmed EFCC boss, when it got wind of his plans to embarrass the government at the centre, with the unexpected arraignment of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and other influential cabinet members especially the core Buharists.
It was also gathered that Magu decided to embark on this self- destruct route, having realised that his days at the anti corruption office were numbered, based on some neck-breaking allegations of financial indiscpline against him.
His intention, the source disclosed, was to paint the Buhari-led administration as a haven for corrup people to the international community.
The EFCC acting chairman, whose umbilical cord is tied to that of a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said to be eyeing the presidency in 2023, was said to have decided to rock the boat with a view to discrediting the system, particularly those perceived to be a threat to the ambition of the APC chieftain.
The APC chieftain, whose ego was recently deflated with the sack of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) was said to be planning to use the EFCC, under the leadership of Magu, to haunt down perceived opponents to his presidential ambition by labelling them as corrupt people.
The latest ordeal of Magu in the hands of the men and officers of the DSS was seen as a justification of the stands of the immediate past President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki and sacked Director General of the DSS, Lawal Daura, against the confirmation of Magu as the substantive EFCC chairman.
It would be recalled that Magu was the Orderly to the current Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, when the traditional ruler was the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
It was believed that a classified report by Daura, when he was the Lagos State Director of the Service on the activities of Akiolu as a Senior Police Officer in Lagos, must have accounted for his forceful retirement by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
It would be recalled that it was based on the said report and the acrimony between Daura and Akiolu that led to a report by the former security chief to the National Assembly on why Magu should not be confirmed.
Acting on the damming report, the Eighth Senate, under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki, refused all entreaties, even from the presidency, to ratify the appointment of Magu as the substantive chairman of the EFCC.
It was in the middle of the controversies and other sundry issues that Daura was removed as the Director General of the topmost security agency by the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, when President Buhari was away on a private visit to London in 2018.
Before his removal by Osinbajo, it was also gathered that Magu, even in acting capacity as the EFCC chairman, had planned to arraign Daura in court on alleged corrupt practices, aimed at smearing his name and extracting his own pound of flesh from Daura, who was the arrowhead of the plot to stop his confirmation as the EFCC chairman.
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