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Ibrahim
Mustafa Magu (Image source: TheCable; Image credits: James Wallace/NPR)
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The chairman of Nigeria's
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been removed from his post
by President Muhammadu Buhari, sources in the government confirmed. No reason was given for
the sacking of Ibrahim Lamorde, pictured below, who had held that position since
2011.
BBC News reports that a former senior member of the commission, Ibrahim Mustafa Magu, has been
appointed to take over on a temporary charge.
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Ibrahim
Lamorde sacked (Image credits: Getty Images)
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The
EFCC has been at the forefront of Nigeria's anti-corruption campaign since 2002
but it has sometimes been accused of targeting government opponents.
Mr
Muhammadu, who was elected in March partly on a pledge to tackle corruption,
has promised to recover what he has described as the mind-boggling sums stolen
under previous administrations.
Ibrahim Magu, The New Man At EFCC, Is So Tough
‘Governors Feared Him More Than Ribadu’
TheCable reports that no matter how many times
you google his name, you are most unlikely to get any useful information or any
high res photograph — that is if you get any photograph at all. In fact,
Ibrahim Magu has only one photograph in the public space, taken by James
Wallace of NPR. The pixels are so small you will struggle to see his face.
Welcome
to the world of Magu, a deputy commissioner of police and the newly appointed
acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). His
little frame will easily deceive you, but he is one of the toughest
interrogators the anti-graft commission has had in its history — one that even
former governors under investigation specifically begged not to be interrogated
by.
“Magu
is the toughest interrogator you can ever think of. When he grills suspects,
they sweat even in the coldest of rooms. He takes his time, does not rush his
questions but he can question you for a whole day and wear you down,” a former
governor told TheCable of his experience in 2006.
“We
used to plead with Ribadu that he should not allow Magu to grill us, that we
would rather be grilled by another officer.”
The
Borno-born officer is a “tough cop”, a senior lawyer told TheCable, recalling
the day Nuhu Ribadu, the former EFCC chairman, asked Magu to release
someone from detention and ask him to come back.
“Magu,
while saluting Ribadu, said, ‘We shall release him, Sir, after he has answered
our questions.’ That was how tough he was with suspects. He was not easily
moved by emotions,” he said.
Feared
more than Ribadu
Magu
was feared more than Ribadu, who was removed as the anti-graft czar in controversial
circumstances in 2007 by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Ribadu was
understood to be a victim of power play as Yar’Adua political associates, led
by James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, sought to castrate the agency.
Ibori is currently serving a jail sentence in the UK.
Not
only was Ribadu removed from the commission through a controversial re-posting
and an order to proceed to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic
Studies (NIPSS), his core team was effectively dismantled. Ibrahim Lamorde, who
was removed by President Muhammadu Buhari as EFCC chairman on Monday, was
posted to Ningi, Bauchi state, while Magu was sent to Delta state, Ibori’s
territory.
“When
he was posted to Delta, he was so surprised that he said, ‘Why don’t you just
tie me up and shoot me rather than post me to Ibori’s domain?’ It was a cynical
posting and there were fears that it was a deliberate plot to get rid of him,”
an EFCC insider told TheCable.
This
needs to be put in its proper context. Magu was one of the officers who
investigated Ibori and came up with the indictment that was used against him in
court. The eventual weakening of EFCC was linked to this particular case, and
posting Mangu to Delta was bound to be seen as not just humiliation but also
an indirect sentence to live in fear.
He
eventually spent only three weeks in Delta before he was given another posting,
and at some point attempts were made to retire him from the police so that he
does not raise his head again. Ribadu, his erstwhile boss, was dismissed from
the force at the height of his struggles as he engaged the powers that be in a
public spat. The federal might ended his career abruptly, although former
President Goodluck Jonathan converted his dismissal to retirement in 2010 after
Ribadu won a court case.
Magu,
meanwhile, was in the wilderness of his life, unable to fit into the proper
police force as his talent and training were being wasted in routine police
duties. For a long time, he remained an assistant commissioner of police
without any hopes of being promoted. But some bit of fortune smiled on him when
Lamorde was appointed EFCC chairman by Jonathan in 2011. Lamorde brought Magu
back into the EFCC, and the Borno-born officer began to find fulfilment again.
Top
investigator
Magu,
apart from the Ibori, was also involved in big investigations, including the
Halliburton bribery scandal. No government has acted on the report which
indicted top government officials. The corruption allegations were related to
the Liquified Natural Gas project which came under intense international
scrutiny, with the US government handing out indictments and heavy fines.
Recently,
Magu was appointed by the government of Buhari to investigate the purchase of
arms by the armed forces under the previous administration. The 14-man panel is
investigating how some of the retired military chiefs spent the votes for arms
while they were in office.
The
panel, inaugurated by Babagana Monguno, the national security adviser, was
asked to investigate, among others, US$466.5m contract to weaponize six Puma
helicopters by Jonathan administration; ₦3billion contract for the supply of
six units of K-38 patrol boats to the disbanded Presidential Implementation
Committee on Maritime Security (PICOMSS) and theft of over €200m by PICOMMS,
including the purchase of two private jets.
Other
allegations were: the US$9.3m cash-for-arms deal seized by South Africa;
whereabouts of US$1billion loan approved by the 7th senate for arms purchase to
fight Boko Haram; what became of unaccessed ₦7b budget for the military and the
contract for the rehabilitation of the Military Reference Hospital in Kaduna.
Little did Magu know that
he was only preparing to become the country’s anti-corruption czar.
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