Magu: Presidency dares Senate

• Insists on confirmation of EFCC chairman

By DICKSON OMONODE

THE embattled Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, may have begun to heave a sigh of relief over the controversy surrounding the rejection of his confirmation by the Senate last week. Magu eventually had a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock, weekend, National Daily can report authoritatively.

The newspaper gathered from a reliable source at the seat of power that the EFCC chairman met with President Buhari after the first daughter’s wedding last week. And Buhari assured Magu that he has no need to panic over the Senate’s decision, urging him to continue with his duty as assigned. The meeting was said to have lasted into midnight.

He told Magu that the Senate has not sent him a letter to the effect of the decision rejecting his confirmation as substantive EFCC chairman. He promised Magu that when the letter is sent he will reply the senators accordingly.

President Buhari was said to have assured Magu that when formal communication is open between his office and the senate, he will do the needful: re-submit his nomination for confirmation, adding that he has no replacement for now.

National Daily once reported that the Magu confirmation saga is a function of the power tussle in the Presidential Villa between two principal officers the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major-General Babagana Monguno (retired), and the Chief of Staff (COS) to the President, Abba Kyari.

Bone of Contention
In the power tussle which culminated in subtle cold war in the seat of power, the chief of staff was disclosed to be in alliance with the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Musa Daura, who has been operating as his field commander; while the NSA has been in alliance with the EFCC Chairman Magu; both have been using their allies to fight the battle in the open.

It was gathered that the DG of DSS is supposed to be reporting to the President through the NSA but Kyari cleared the way for him to be reporting directly to the president. It was therefore not surprising that the DG DSS sent a damning report to the Senate against Magu to allegedly forestall the confirmation of his appointment.

Before now, sources at the presidency revealed that there has been a cold war between Magu and members of the President’s kitchen cabinet, who seek to interfere with ongoing corruption cases handled by the EFCC.

SaharaReporters in a publication did an exposé that revealed how the Chief of Staff perverted an investigation that the EFCC had commenced against a powerful indigenous oil company, Sahara Energy, which Kyari is directly accusing Magu of being the brain behind the leakage of the story.

It was also revealed that Magu’s letter of nomination to the Senate for confirmation was delayed by the Chief of Staff and the Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami because of Magu’s “intransigence.”

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Now, the NSA is believed to be going after Sahara Energy. The Sahara group, probably, after weighing the power play in Aso Rock later switched alliance. Kyari, and D.G. of DSS were in the Buhari’s Campaign caucus.

Proxy War
National Daily, had reported that the Chief of Staff had allegedly wanted the DSS to go after and arrest a member of the Presidential Investigative Committee on Arms Procurement, Air Commodore Umar Mohammed (rtd), on accusation of fraudulent deals involving top government officials.

Mohammed was alleged to be fronting for some high ranking officials within the EFCC and security agencies to carry out unwholesome activities.

It was indicated that “based on a tip off, DSS operatives raided his residence at No. 4 Lundi Close, off Mississippi Street, Maitama, Abuja, where the DSS operatives,” were said to have, “after a five-hour search, found and seized the sum of $1.5 million in cash and various high-end cars.”

Muhammed, Chairman of EasyJets Nigeria, is one of the 13 members of the Presidential Arms Procurement Investigative Panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2015 under the supervision of the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

Membership of the Panel as was constituted by NSA include: Air Vice Marshal J.O.N. Ode (rtd.), President; Rear Admiral J.A. Aikhomu (rtd.), Member; Rear Admiral E. Ogbor (rtd.), Member; Brigadier General L. Adekagun (rtd.), Member; Brigadier General M. Aminu-Kano (rtd.), Member; Brigadier General N. Rimtip (rtd.), Member; Commodore T.D. Ikoli, Member; Air Commodore U. Mohammed (rtd.), Member; Air Commodore I. Shafi’I, member; Colonel A.A. Ariyibi, member; Group Captain C.A. Oriaku (rtd.), member; Mr. Ibrahim Magu (EFCC), Member; and Brigadier General Y.I. Shalangwa, Secretary.

In an earlier report, a source at the presidency had disclosed to National Daily that the Chief of Staff and retiredGeneral Abdurahaman Dambazzau, Minister of Interior, had allegedly wanted Magu replaced as EFCC Chairman. Invariably, there have been forces that did not want Magu to be EFCC chairman and might have been lobbying to achieve that.

Phantom security report?
Accordingly, there has been the phobia that Kyari in collaboration with the DSS DG and others have been engaged in full-scale war against Magu over the period.

It was earlier reported by National Daily that the Presidential Arms Deal Panel had wanted to probe Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, Minister of Interior and former Chief of Army Staff, who was allegedly involved in arms deal under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Presidency sources also disclosed that this move was, however, being resisted by the CoS and the D.G of DSS who were said to be working assiduously to block the probe.

Sahara Reporters, in exposing Dieziani Allison-Madueke, former Minister of Petroleum, had reported that the EFCC found her to have done deals with Sahara Energy Field Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Nigeria Limited. And the decision by the EFCC to go ahead and charge Atlantic Energy to court was not going well with the COS. The anti-corruption agency was said to be hell-bent on going after Sahara Energy, a move that may expose the big names behind the company.

The Chief of Staff was said to have shown to have soft spot for the two oil firm while the NSA also had interest in Air Commodore Muhammadu who was arrested by the DSS.
In an earlier report by National Daily, the DSS was said to be angry with theEFCC chairman because Magu was held to have stepped on their toes by constantly questioning why they usurped the role of EFCC in carrying out raids into the homes of corrupt former government officials, which is the responsibility of the EFCC.

The DSS had reportedly raided at least 30 homes of officials and aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan but only managed to deliver a meagre N47 million and $1.943 million. “Worse still, some of the monies recovered were never delivered to the federal government treasury and during reconciliation, some of the foreign currencies were found to be fake,” it was revealed. EFCC was not pleased with the incidence.

Moreover, Magu had, at the National Assembly recently, said that the DSS have no authority to raid homes of judges on corruption allegations; arguing that corruption does not constitute internal security which is the sphere of duty of the DSS. Thus, he was of the view that the DSS usurped the powers of the EFCC.

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He would, however, get a shocker last week when the Senate refused to confirm the appointment of Magu as substantive EFCC chairman.

The senators said they could not approve the presidency’s request to confirm Magu based on a security report forwarded to it by the DSS.

“The nomination of Ibrahim Magu is hereby rejected and has been returned to the President for further action,” Aliyu Abdullahi, Senate spokesman, said.

It was gathered that Senate committee did not give the EFCC chairman any opportunity to respond to the allegations against him.

Meanwhile, there are indications that the senators might have acted on certain handouts.

It was gathered that some senators have skeleton in their cupboards and can seldom resist the temptation of being blackmailed. The DSS were said to have dossiers on some of the senators which were used to intimidate them. The security operatives were said to have blackmailed some of the senators, mostly APC senators, into frustrating Magu’s confirmation.

Magu’s sponsors in the Senate had guaranteed the EFCC Chair of an easy day until the Chief of Staff who had been flown out of the country due to ill health returned suddenly and resumed duties, and mobilised his forces both in the Senate and outside to frustrate the process.

A Senator who pleaded anonymity hinted that the impression in the upper chamber is that Mr President had received the same security report and had expressed grave concerns about the findings.

Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES which did some exclusives on the Magu ordeal back then, has reported a number of discrepancies between the event then and the report now.

It was alleged that during the tenure of Farida Waziri as EFCC chairperson, sensitive documents were found in Magu’s home. Bu “the facts do not support that claim, according to the online newspaper, It narrated that “based on pressure from political gladiators of the period (among which were former Governors James Ibori and Bukola Saraki), then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua unceremoniously removed Nuhu Ribadu as EFCC chairman. Magu, who was a chief superintendent of police at the time, was sent away from the EFCC and his Lagos and Abuja homes were raided by operatives even before he had the opportunity to hand over to Umar Sanda as head of the Economic Governance Unit of the commission. He was later detained for three weeks.

It was indicated that following complaints by Waziri, the then Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, queried Magu, accusing him of serious misconduct. One of the allegations against him was that he removed and withheld EFCC files.

On August 25, 2008, Magu was said to have replied the query, explaining to the IGP that no unauthorized EFCC official documents were found in his home. And Magu was exonerated.

That Magu currently occupies a residence rented for N40 million at N20 million per annum paid for by one Umar Mohammed, air commodore retired was not exactly true.

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The property in question was paid for by the Federal Capital Development Administration and not Umar.

It revealed that the E-Payment schedule, dated March 31, was issued by to the branch controller of Central Bank, Abuja, in favour of M/S Valcour SA Nigeria Limited.

“The company was paid N39.628 million as payment for two-year rent and furnishing of the property, located in upscale Maitama district of Abuja. The payment schedule was signed by Isiyaku Ismaila and confirmed by Zanna A. Hamza. Magu lived in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, before his appointment as acting EFCC chair. With his new position, Magu moved into an official residence provided by the FCDA,” PT stated.

It was also alleged that Magu regularly embarked on official and private trips with a private jet owned by embattled Air Commodore Mohammed Umar (Rtd).

However, Magu first met and got close to Umar when both of them worked as members of the Presidential Committee on the investigation of arms procurement. At the time, Umar was very close to President Buhari and had unlimited access to the Presidential Villa.

It still remains to be seen how this cold war between the Chief of Staff and the National Security Adviser to the President turns out, and the anticipated casualties. It’s often said that when two elephants clash, it is the grass that suffers.