July 6, 2017 – Osinbajo Says Nobody Can Remove Magu As EFCC Chairman Calls For Creation Of Prison In Sambisa Forest For Corrupt Nigerian Politicians
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo today cleared the air on the controversy surrounding the status of Ibrahim Magu as Chairman of the EFCC. He said nobody can remove Magu as the acting Chairman.
Osinbajo spoke through Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai shortly before the commissioning of the EFCC zonal office in Kaduna.
This came just as the EFCC chief called for establishment of special prison for corrupt Nigerians in Sambisa forest.
Osinbajo said he held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue, adding that the President insisted that Magu would remain the EFCC chairman.
The acting President said:
“We have every confidence in Magu to fight corruption to a standstill. He would remain the EFCC chairman as long as I remain the acting President and as well as Muhammadu Buhari remains the President.
“It is our belief that Magu would continue to remain a nightmare for corrupt people for years to come.
In his welcome address, Governor El-Rufai said he had recovered over N500 million from corrupt past government officials and contractors without anybody knowing.
He, however, added that those corrupt officials will be handed over to the EFCC in due course for prosecution.
According to the governor, he encouraged the establishment of EFCC zonal office in Kaduna because the state has zero tolerance for financial irregularities.
On the location of prison in Sambisa forest, Magu urged the judicial arm of government should cooperate with EFCC for the prison to become a reality.
He said: “We want to call for establishment of prison in Sambisa forest in order to keep away corrupt people from our midst.
“In this case, the judiciary has direct influence to help in the fight against corruption.
“But concerted efforts are being made by some big Nigerians to neutralise the fight against corruption.
“We must change the narrative by fighting back those that do not want the fight to succeed.”
[The Nation]
Corrupt politicians must be dealt with
The EFCC should publish names of corrupt Nigerian politicians, list the amount stolen, list the banks-domestic or foreign where our money are kept, and publish the total amount of money recover so far from those vagabonds in power. The list should not be politically motivated to target certain members of any party, but all the political thieves should be exposed, punish, and the money should be recover to run both the state and federal operations.
By now every knowledgeable and facts finders in Nigeria should have known that the anti graft agency organisation that was set up to fight corruption are not living up to their mandate and as such are ineffective at best. Victims of corruption are often become elated and comforted when they observe the court trial and subsequent sentencing of a corrupt public officer who have engage in financial impropriety. But on the contrary,what we’ve seen over the years is inability of the so called EFCC to bring our corrupt politicians to book, in most cases having their trials stalled in the court due to lack of provision of necessary document required by the defence team in order to commence trial. This recurrent act alone has made the organisation intransigence, ineptitude and unproductive having no meaningful impact to Nigeria government and it citizens ever since it establishment. So why should anyone think EFCC is the messiah to our problem? Whether Magu remains as EFCC chairman or not,corruption will continue to remain an integral part of the failed country-Nigeria.
Endurance, you are absolutely right about inept attitude of our EFCC to fully prosecute our corrupt politicians. My believe is, if Magu can be given a chance to perform independently, he will greatly deliver. What we need now is to start from somewhere first, If we don’t attempt we may not know what this guy is capable of doing.
I understand that EFCC has been influenced by our leaders including President but we can neutralize the influence by appointing special 3 man panel who will monitor his performance and possibly fire him if he misbehave. They may include, Chief Justice of Federation, the President and Senate President. All of them must have equal vote to dismiss or punish him, one or two votes is not enough to remove him from power. All of them must be convince that this guy is abusing his office.
Final decision from the acting president ,,Act boldly you will overcome the bad eggs call our leaders, by the power of Christ.