More revelations are beginning to emerge from a prior probe of the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, with allegations that he could not properly account for 332 out of the 836 recovered properties in March, 2018, the Punch reports.
According to the report, the latest allegation against Magu was contained in a report of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets, adding that the recovered properties were allegedly taken over by some top EFCC officials, or sold to Magu’s friends and cronies at giveaway prices.
It would be recalled that the paper had reported on Sunday that the panel, in its report titled, ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020,’ alleged that Magu was unable to account for the interest generated from N550bn cash recovered from 2015 to 2020.
Magu is currently facing another probe panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari with the retired President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, heading it.
Read also: MAGU: Falana denies receiving N28m, may head for court
It is believed that the current probe panel is as a result of the report of the asset recovery audit panel.
The asset recovery audit committee had Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim as Chairman. Other members of the previous committee were Deputy Inspector General Anthony Ogbizi; a member from the Federal Ministry of Justice; Mualledi Dogondaji from the EFCC; Hassan Abdullahi from the Department of State Services; an unnamed member from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation; Chinedu Ifediora from the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, while Mr Kazeem Attitebi served as the secretary.
The audit panel, according to the report, indicated that there was massive wastage and deterioration of physical assets including landed properties, cars and vessels recovered by the EFCC due to poor management.
It also noted that the EFCC failed to preserve and realise the economic value of the recovered assets, noting that some of the assets were recovered over 15 years ago and left fallow.
Opinions