MAGU: Osinbajo petitions IGP over N4bn claims

…Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo intends to wave his constitutional immunity for investigation

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, over alleged claims connecting him to the recovered funds re-looted by the suspended nation’s anti-graft boss, Ibrahim Magu.

An online platform, PointBlank News, run by Jackson Ude, on Wednesday reported that Magu plundered N39 billion and gave N4 billion to Prof. Osinbajo.

The report proved that anonymous sources in the presidential panel to interrogate the suspended EFCC boss, “exposed the vice president’s involvement in the scandal.”

Read also: PDP asks Osinbajo to resign over N4bn Magu’s allegations

“Specifically, Magu was said to have mentioned a N4 billion that he released to the VP based on directives the very day the president left the country for the United Kingdom on medical treatment,” report said.

Although the vice president through his media spokesperson, Laolu Akande described the claims as “false and baseless fabrications,” yet he also wrote the IGP on Wednesday through his counsel, Taiwo Osipitan.

He said in the petition which he also copied the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, that the report was untrue and defamatory.

 “On the 8th of July 2020, Mr Ude wrote and published on his website www.pointblanknews.com materials/stories which are criminally defamatory of our client. We have the instructions of our client that the said publications are injuriously false in every respect,” Osipitan said in the letter.

Prof. Osinbajo was sore displeased at Mr Ude’s Twitter publication where he again accused the vice president of corruption.

“HushBajo. N4billion. The Ghana investment. Okechukwu Enelamah the erand boy. The secretly recorded night vigil prayers at the Villa Chapel. The letter of resignation written for Buhari in Tunis by Tinubu/Osinabjo while Ba was sick. The scheming to take over. Etc. This na pay back https://t.co/vgIHZlQR6c,” the tweet read.

The tweet spread on several social media platforms to portray the vice president a “dishonest and disloyal public officer and consequently unfit for the position of the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which he is occupying,” the official said.

The lawyer further asked the IGP to investigate the claims and the law enforcement agency should initiate criminal proceedings against Ude, if found culpable, and his platform prevented from future ‘false publications’.

Read also: Osinbajo denies collecting N4bn from embattled EFCC boss, Magu

The vice president also revealed his willigness to wave his constitutionally assured immunity from examination to ensure persons who spread falsehood about him were brought to book.

The reports of the allegations are tied to how the saga began on Monday when the DSS arrested the EFCC boss, Magu, grilled for hours, and later suspended by the presidency.

He was accused of corruption and insurbordination after the memo served by the attorney-general.

His suspension was followed by a search on his homes and still being investigated by the presidential panel led by retired jurist, Ayo Salami.