Worry more about Magu than interim report, Salami tells Shittu

Ayo Salami, head of the panel probing Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has told Wahab Shittu, Magu’s counsel, to worry more about his client than the interim report of the panel.

President Muhammadu Buhari had set up a panel to probe corruption allegations levelled against Magu.

In its interim report, the panel recommended the sack of Magu and his prosecution.

The panel also recommended the appointment of a new chairman for the anti-graft agency “without further delay”.

But Shittu, who said the panel did not give his client fair hearing, had claimed that those recommendations were not made.

He had accused the media of peddling falsehood.

In a statement on Sunday, Shittu said Salami refused the request that those who published the stories should be summoned by the panel.

Shittu also quoted Salami as saying he did not leak the interim report of the panel.

“The story arising from the so-called interim report is not from us. What should concern you and your client is what the chairman said. Inviting the promoters of the story will not serve any useful purpose as they will not disclose their sources of the story,” Salami was quoted to have said.

Magu was arrested on July 6 and whisked before the panel by a combined team of Department of State Services (DSS) and officers from the force criminal investigation department (FCID) of the police in Abuja.

Magu was detained at area 10 of the FCT police command for 10 days before being granted bail.

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

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

Magu was also alleged to have purchased a property in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, using a pastor as a conduit.

He has since denied all the allegations which he described as “nonsense”, once saying: “what I am going through is a case of dog eats dog”.