EFCC Is Not Selective In Its Anti-Corruption War – Magu
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has denied claims that it was witch-hunting leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the anti-graft agency released Jafaru Isa, the chieftain of All Progressives Congress, but continued detention of Olisa Metuh, the PDP’s spokesman.
Ibrahim Magu, the EFCC boss, explained that Isa had begun the process of refunding the money in his possession, but Metuh had refused to do the same.
Premium Times reports that Magu was speaking at a meeting with online media publishers on Monday, January 11, in Lagos.
"From the records, Metuh got over N400 million, he has not said anything because we need the public money to be returned so that it’s going to be used for public good.
"Also Jafaru Isa, what Dasuki gave him was N170 million. He also agreed…of course he has collected that money, he was with us for 4-5 days and then he made a deposit of N100 million and entered an undertaking to bring the rest. That does not mean we will not prosecute him."
"But this other Metuh, instead of going for a refund, he has admitted he collected money…. so instead of… he still has the money because the money is too much. Instead of returning the money, he preferred to go on strike," he said.
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Magu stressed that the anti-graft agency was not selective in its anti-corruption war, and there was no witch-hunting. He noted that only corrupt people are being invited for questioning and added that in all the cases the EFCC conducts preliminary investigation.
"If it is company you used, we unveil the profile of the company to see who owns the company. If it’s money, we make sure we follow the money, in your account.
"So it is not true that we just go and carry people and dump them. Sometimes you have to give chance to the person accused to say his own side of the story. And in the process the man will disclose a lot of things that you may not know. So it is very necessary for you to follow up on the information received from the person arrested, to strengthen whatever you have.
"We don’t keep people for more than 10-15 days. In fact, in most cases, we obtain relevant court orders. In all cases, if you see we keep somebody, there must be a supporting court order.
"If you are not corrupt, we will not have any cause to invite you. So we only invite corrupt people, no selective," he said.
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At the event, Magu revealed that he had begun an internal cleansing of the EFCC to get rid of corrupt operatives.
Although the EFCC chairman refused to disclose what the commission was doing, he stressed that he would not work with corrupt operatives.
“There is no moral justification to come and make noise, and chase corrupt people when you are yourself corrupt.
“We do not have sufficient personnel – lawyers, detectives the way we want. But the little we have we try to make use of whatever we can lay our hands on,” he added.
During the meeting, Magu also explained why former president Goodluck Jonathan has not been arrested over $2.1 billion arms deal.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the PDP has told its members involved in the controversial arms deal probe to return the looted funds.
Source: Legit.ng
