More trouble for EFCC boss, Magu, over court orders

More trouble seems to be brewing for acting chairman of the Economic and Finacial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, for allegedly disobeying a court order, just as Nigerians have taken the battle of this confirmation saga to the social media

A Magistrate, Okeagu Azubuike had, on Friday endorsed Form 48, which is the, “Notice of Consequences of Disobedience to Order of Court” against the acting EFCC boss after the anti-graft agency failed to comply with an order of court made on December 1, discharging an expired remand warrant for a suspect, Na’im Lawal.

“Take notice that unless you obey the order of court contained in the ruling of the court discharging the expired remand warrant, issued by the honourable court and ordering the release of the applicant to his freedom on the 1st of December, 2016, you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to committal to prison,” Azubuike said.

Lawal was nabbed by operatives of the EFCC on October 14, 2016 in Katsina over allegations of conspiracy, theft of government money, money laundering and obtaining under false pretence.

At the expiration of the remand after 14 days, counsel to Lawal, Mr Abdulhamid Mohammed applied to the court to make an order discharging him from custody or for EFCC to charge him to court.

In his ruling on December 1, Azubuike directed EFCC to “release the applicant to his freedom or arraign the applicant to court that has appropriate jurisdiction, if the respondent has any allegation against him under the law.”

Following the failure of the anti-graft agency to obey the latest order, the judge endorsed committal action which the lawyer brought against Magu.

However, Mohammed alleged that officials of the anti-graft agency on Friday denied court bailiffs access to serve the committal processes on Magu in person as required by law.

“We have taken some steps to serve Magu in person but the officials at the commission are frustrating our efforts,” he said.

The Senate, last week, refused to confirm the appointment of Magu as the chairman of the anti-graft agency.

Reports indicated that the upper chamber of the National Assembly rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination based on the security report sent by the Department of State Services (DSS).

When contacted, EFCC’s Head, Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, told Sunday Tribune that he was not aware of such court order issued against Magu.

According to Uwujaren, “I have not seen such order,” saying that he was going to check if such was issued.

Confirmation of appointment sparks social media war

On Saturday many commentators on social media took to Twitter and Facebook to vent their anger on the decision not to confirm Magu, taking different sides on the development.

A Twitter user, Soji Alebiosu, with the handle @Soojaey, had twitted at the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, saying “You should have done it [Magu’s screening] in the open for everyone to see what actually transpired. That way there won’t be any room for speculations.”

Another user, Gafah Moave, with the handle, @gafah2015, asked why Magu’s confirmation could not be decided at plenary.

Also commenting, another Twitter user, Mustapha Ado Kaura, with the handle @AdoKaura, asked whether the Senate constituted a committee to investigate the security report that indicted Magu.

A Facebook user, Adaji Ededhor, while responding to a question by Sunday Tribune on whether or not Magu should have been confirmed despite the reported security report against him, said “the delay in screening him in plenary suggests that the Senate was working from the answer to the question. They never liked his face because of their selfish interests. They have thrown the national interest overboard. This Senate is working against Buhari.

Another Facebook user, who identified himself as Victor Jaba, maintained that the senators refused to confirm Magu because they were bothered about the “security report against them,” while another user, Bamidele Timothy, maintained that the move against Magu was because “they are enemies of our great nation; after looting the treasury; they don’t want their secret to be known.”

Also throwing her weight behind the embattled EFCC boss, a Facebook user identified as Moronkeji Adegbile stated that Magu deserved to be confirmed, noting that his performance so far and within the public domain had been impressive and commendable. “Let the Senate have a second look at his matter. The Senate should not mangle his chances,” she said.

But another Facebook user, Yerima Baba, disagreed, saying that “before the confirmation, he [Magu] has shown that he is biased and that he can be controlled by the ruling party. There are many cases that need to be questioned but provided you are an APC member, your hands are clean.”

According to another Facebook user, Femi Babarinde, another person should replace Magu, while Justus Ntui noted that “if the allegations levelled against him are authenticated, then he shouldn’t be confirmed, because corruption can’t fight corruption.”

Responding to some of the reactions on Twitter, however, the Senate President, noted that the Senate conducted the screening behind closed-door because security screenings were usually done that way.

“You won’t want them to divulge ongoing national security operations in public,” Saraki said, adding that the screening was done at the plenary during executive session in the presence of all senators and the nominee.

He added that: “We received a report and it is our constitutional duty to act on it. The agency that submitted the report is not under the Senate,” noting that it investigated the report, which was why the screening took many months.