Ibrahim Magu who is the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has described the resistance against the ongoing anti-graft war by some corrupt elements in the country as frightening.
Ibrahim Magu said this at a meeting with media executives in Lagos on Wednesday, September 5, 2018, where he said it has become more fashionable in Nigeria for anyone being investigated for corruption to scream political prosecution.
Magu stating further, said though no one would expect the fight against corruption to be smooth, the resistance had assumed frightening dimensions with political motives inputed into most of the activities of the Commission, especially as the next general election approaches. He said:
“Corrupt officials of state governments are pleading immunity not ascribed to them by the Constitution. “Some governors have also extended the frontiers of their constitutional immunity by claiming that anti-corruption agencies cannot even investigate them.”
Ibrahim Magu, who described the event as part of his interface with critical stakeholders, therefore, urged the media to be more vigilant, adding that “as I have stated in various fora, the EFCC is apolitical and will not knock on your door, if you have not violated the law.
“The media owes Nigerians a duty not to allow the corrupt to deploy their ill-gotten riches to corner the machinery of government. Such folly was injurious to our national wellbeing in the past and will not profit us in the future.”
The EFCC boss, who further stated that the Commission was making progress, in spite of the distractions and irritations by the corrupt, also used the occasion to reiterate that the Commission, under his leadership, had recorded improvements in the areas of prosecution of persons for corruption and recovery of stolen assets.
“So far this year, we have had the honour of sending two former governors to jail for 14 years each. It has never happened”, Magu said.
source:efccnigeria.org