How Magu ‘Harassed’ Abubakar, TY Danjuma Without Buhari’s Knowledge

The suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has been accused of ‘harassing’ two allies of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Naija News reports that Magu was recently suspended by President Buhari and replaced by Mohammed Umar as the boss of the EFCC.

In weekly THISDAY column on Thursday, the former spokesman to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Olusegun Adeniyi, said Magu who had raided the home of a former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar also blocked Theophilus Danjuma, former defence minister, from purchasing an aircraft.

Adeniyi revealed that the suspended EFCC chairman carried out all these moves without President Buhari’s authorization.

He wrote: “Former Defence Minister, Lt General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd) was recently at the villa to see President Muhammadu Buhari. It was a visit borne out of rage. A billionaire oil tycoon, Danjuma had paid for the purchase of an aircraft. His cheque bounced! The order to withhold payment, he was told by his banker, came from Magu!

“From what I gathered, it took some time before the president could convince Danjuma that he knew nothing about what was clearly power-mongering by a reckless public official.

“A few weeks before that incident, the Minna residence of former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar was raided by EFCC operatives who “turned the house upside down”. The president also got to know only after the deed had been done.

“While neither Danjuma nor Abdulsalami is above the law, power should never be used to harass and ridicule people, whether high or low.”

Recovered Loots

Adeniyi revealed that the president was given information on how Ibrahim Magu was auctioning recovered assets.

“A man who would take on the high and mighty in a society like ours, including members of the president’s immediate family, must also live above suspicion.

“In the past five years, Magu has at different times made claims about the hundreds of billions of Naira recovered from ‘treasury looters’. But subsequent auctions for recovered assets did not follow due process, resulting in choice properties being handed out to suspected cronies,” he said.