The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under its former acting Chairman Ibrahim Magu has compromised worth over N333 billion, $2 billion and £13 million.
This was revealed in the final of the Justice Ayo Salami-led presidential panel that probed Magu’s tenure from May 2015 to May 2020 at the anti-graft commission.
The panel submitted its final report to President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2020.
The report as reported by The Cable on Friday said the anti-graft agency was characterised by impunity and arbitrariness during Magus’s tenure.
Part of the report read, “The EFCC awarded the contract for the new headquarters consultancy services at the rate of N451,318,501 instead of the N399,243,290 approved by the BPP. The commission observes that the EFCC formed the habit of not engaging the use of the default procurement method (open competitive bidding). The EFCC in some cases, extend/renew contracts without obtaining approvals from the relevant/appropriate authorities,” the panel said.
“The submissions made by the EFCC on the status of investigation conducted by the zonal offices exposed some operatives who are notoriously engaged in brazen compromise of cases. The affected cases were either closed or Kept-in-View (KIV) by the dubious operatives.
“The compromised cases in naira denomination involved the sum of N333,535,364,077. The compromised cases in US dollar denomination are valued at $2,521,011,976. The compromised cases calculated in British pounds denomination are valued at £13,143,570. One of the operatives identified as Usman Zakari dubiously kept-in-view 23 different cases, with offences ranging from money laundering, diversion of funds, obtaining under false pretense, all involving a total sum of N45,262,005,908.”
Magu was suspended on July 10, 2020, by President Buhari over Malami’s allegations against him.
He consequently appeared before Justice Salami’s presidential panel set up to probe him.
