By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
A constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has described the travails of the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, as an “iroko tree that suddenly diminished to a shrub or an anthill.”
Ozekhome made the allusion, while reacting to the arrest, detention and grilling of until yesterday, the “powerful” boss of the government’s anti-corruption agency, the EFCC, who was accosted on his way to office on Tuesday by the operatives of DSS and taken to the Presidential Villa for questioning by a presidential panel headed by retired Justice Ayo Salami.
Allegations of living above his legitimate means and re-looting of recovered Abacha loot among others were linked to Magu.
In a statement made available to TheNiche, the human rights lawyer stated that he fought, criticised and challenged Magu in court for his impunity and won and yet he (Magu) did not retrace his steps.
“I called for a change of the way and manner the ‘anti- corruption war ‘ was being selectively and opaqualey fought. I wrote a public letter in 2017, to the then Acting President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo (SAN), at a time his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, was sick on London hospital bed”.
The silk lawyer said that he complained bitterly, with facts, figures and data, that recovered funds and property that had been looted were being re-looted by the Magu-led team, who were supposed to keep the gate of our Commonwealth.
“They looted our treasury in collaboration with their cronies, friends and acolytes. Magu was the new Sheriff in town. I got no reply to my letter to Osinbajo. I wrote a reminder. No dice”, Ozekhome disclosed.
Ozekhome posited that Magu was the architect of his travails because aside his corrupt practices, he was selective in discharging his duties, arresting and detaining opponents of the ruling party and any descent voice to the government.
