Monday Ubani, a former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari over the conduct of the embattled suspended former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu saying that he should not have been allowed to remain in acting capacity for five years.
Buhari recently suspended Magu from office, while he is being probed by a panel led by a former president of the Court of Appeal,
Justice Ayo Salami (retd), for his actions while in office.
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He has been probed based on several allegations, many emanating from reports by the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation ( AGF), and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) and DSS submitted in 2016 and 2017 to the Senate.
But speaking on the Magu’s probe in an interview with Businessday, Thursday, Ubani said Buhari’s refusal to remove him from office despite the DSS report indicting him and his non-confirmation by the National Assembly aided his conduct.
According to him, “The moment he was not confirmed, the President should have acted and appointed someone else but doing nothing and keeping him in acting capacity for five years makes him feel that he is larger than life and was indispensable which also made him to do most of the things he did there.
“You don’t allow an individual in a country of 200 million people to be in a position for five years, even when he was rejected by NASS; it is wrong when the law setting up EFCC did not allow that,” Ubani said.
Speaking further, Ubani seeks the setting up of another agency to manage the confiscated assets in EFCC custody to prevent abuse by the commission; stressing that Magu’s conduct was a setback to the current administration’s anti-graft war.
“Yes, just like the previous chairmen of the agency, they always end up disgracefully because of certain acts they committed while ruining the agency. Part of which is the recovered loot.
“Most times, there has always been an issue on the management of the recovered loot; I think we have to probably look at the laws setting up EFCC and then the power given to them on recovered loot, whether another agency should be in charge of recovered loot to avoid all this,” he added.
