Former acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has responded to claims that he prevented the extradition of a former minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke and other fugitives to face trial in Nigeria.
Debunking the claims, Embattled former EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu told the presidential probe panel investigating allegations of corruption against him that it was his accuser, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who was actually frustrating the extradition of the fugitives.
News Agency of Nigeria earlier reported that Mr Magu was accused of refusing to cooperate with crime-fighting authorities in the United Kingdom to facilitate the return of Mrs Alison-Madueke to face corruption charges in Nigeria.
The report from NAN also claimed that Mr Magu has refused to provide documentary evidence that would make the office of the Attorney General of the Federation commence the process of extraditing Mrs Alison-Maduake.
However, in Mr Magu’s response, he denied refusing to share information with the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom.
“The NCA still shares critical information with the Commission and conducts joint operations with the Commission under the Combined Inter-Agency Task Force (CIATF) and also directly. Classified documents in this regard can be produced for sighting on request and with the consent of the NCA. The Commission is also jointly working with the NCA on several cases including the Diezani Allison-Madueke cases and all the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) requests on these cases are passed to the NCA and the Crown Prosecution Services through the Centra Authority Unit (CAD) of the Ministry of Justice contrary to the allegations of the HAGF,” Mr Magu wrote.
Magu, however, added that following the delay by UK authorities to charge Mrs Alison-Madueke, the EFCC wrote to the authorities in the country through the AGF requesting the extradition of the former petroleum minister so she can face pending charges in Nigeria.
He said that Mr Malami has yet to communicate with the commission the position of UK authorities on the request it made.
Further Denying the claims made against him by Mr Malami, Mr Magu told the probe panel that under his leadership, “the EFCC maintained a good working relationship with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation which recently acknowledged this relationship by commending the Commission publicly and on record.”
He added that apart from the request for the extradition of Mrs Alison-Madueke, the EFCC has made several requests through the AGF for the extradition of high profile Nigerian fugitives and that Mr Malami has yet to respond to any of the requests.
“Some of these fugitives include Robert John Oshodin who laundered millions of United States Dollars on behalf of former National Security Adviser (NSA) Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd), former Special to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme Mr Kingsley Kuku and Hima Aboubakar who was criminally indicted by the investigation of arms procurement conducted under the former NSA Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd). Attached and marked as Annexure 32 (a)-(e) are copies of the extradition requests of these fugitives.
“The Commission also forwarded a Mutual Legal Assistance request to the HAGF for onward transmission to the authorities of the British Virgin Island through a letter dated 9th September, 2019 wherein the Commission requested for critical information in respect of the P&ID case but the Commission is yet to receive any response from the office of the HAGF,” Mr Magu wrote.
Mr Magu has however, been released from police custody after 10 days in detention. During his detention, Magu spent the night at Area 10, force criminal investigation department (FCID) of the police in Abuja.
Meanwhile The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has disclosed that the presidency has been receiving some little updates from the panel that probed Ibrahim Magu, he added that the findings would surprise Nigerians.
He said in an interview:
“I am not going to pre-empt the panel investigation but I just advice Nigerians to hold their hearts in their hands. By the time they are done with this job and they come out with the reports prepare yourselves for surprises.
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