Magu allegedly pocketed interest on N550 billion recovered from 2015 to 2020

Magu had been indicted by an earlier presidential panel

The last has yet to be heard of the corruption allegations against the embattled Acting Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu.

A new report published by the government-owned News Agency of Nigeria, NAN alleged that previous investigation on Magu revealed how the commission failed to account for an interest that accrued on a N550 billion recovered between 2015 and 2020.

Apparently, Magu had been investigated before and indicted by a presidential panel led by a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, who is currently probing Magu and other top officials of the agency.

This panel uncovered the irregularities in the accounting of the recovered cash.

According to that NAN report, that initial report became the basis for the setting up of the current Salami-led panel.

The report titled, ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020’ read in part, “Failure to report on the interest on actual lodgements clearly establishes that the interest element of over N550bn has been re-looted relating to the period under review.

“This is an apparent case of manipulation of data in a very brazen and unprofessional manner and this has greatly eroded the public confidence in the anti-corruption efforts.”

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The panel said it was quite disturbing that conflicting figures were being circulated in the public space by the EFCC as the amount of recovered funds.

It said these inconsistencies cast serious doubt on the accuracy of figures submitted by the EFCC.

The committee said it was of the view that the EFCC could not be said to have fully accounted for cash recoveries made by it, noting that there were discrepancies between what the embattled chairman reported and the lodgements the commission made.

It added: “It must be pointed out that the discrepancy of more than N31bn does not include interest accrued in this account since it was opened.

“It therefore cast serious doubt on the credibility of the figures and means that substantial amount of money has not been accurately accounted for.”