I was procured to nail Magu, lawyer writes Salami panel

Victor Giwa, an Abuja-based lawyer, says he was procured to nail Ibrahim Magu, suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The presidential panel headed by Ayo Salami, retired president of the appeal court, is probing the activities of the agency under Magu.

Magu was alleged to have mishandled recovered loot and sold seized assets to his associates.

In a petition, one Donald Wokoma, accused Magu of attempting to extort him of N75 million through Giwa, his former lawyer.

In his testimony before the committee, Wokoma reportedly presented an audiotape of his conversation with Giwa in order to implicate Magu.

But in a letter dated August 15 and addressed to the presidential committee, Giwa alleged that Wokoma had made a desperate move to lure him to nail the suspended acting EFCC chairman.

“I, Victor Giwa, request to provide additional information to state that the said information and petition was borne out of a desperate move of Donald Wokoms to lure me into indicting the Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu of the EFCC, with a promise that his money will be released,” Giwa said.

“My refusal was what has led to the presentation of an audio recording of client-lawyer conversation which is privilege information.

“I will be grateful if I am given the opportunity to give additional facts.”

Magu was arrested and detained on July 6, 2020, following summons by the presidential panel.

His travails followed a memo by Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, who accused him of “grave malfeasance”.