An ongoing power tussle between the leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and some powerful individuals who are not comfortable with the way the Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ibrahim Magu, has been running its affairs has torn the commission apart.
Aside from the internal wrangling within the agency, allegations of corrupt practices and nepotism amongst the staff have, however, caught the attention of the Presidency.
Our correspondent exclusively gathered that the alleged rejection of a serving senior police officer, Edward Achogu, as the commission’s director of operations by the EFCC boss about a month ago, has polarised the agency along ethnic lines.
Magu, a source said within the commission, allegedly worked against Achogu’s appointment, “ostensibly on the reason that he is an Igbo man that could not be trusted.”
Officials and operatives of the agency, especially those of Igbo extraction who are not happy about the development are, however, alleged to be secretly spoiling for adown with the commission’s boss over the issue.
They were said to have secured the support of some powerful persons in the Presidency in their bid to take their own pound of flesh against Magu.
But the EFCC boss’ problems were recently compounded when President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, allegedly begun a plot to remove Magu from office as reported by an online news agency, Sahara Reporters.
Kyari is reportedly plotting Magu’s removal in collaboration with top officials of the Department of State Security (DSS) and some media chiefs.
According to the news agency, under the scheme, Magu will be replaced with an already identified but unnamed individual, who is more amenable to the ways of Kyari and other kitchen cabinet members.
Related issues of contention include the planned commencement of the trial of Jide Omokore, a businessman known to have been involved in multi-billion naira oil deals with a former minister of petroleum sources, Diezani Alison- Madueke.
The chief of staff had allegedly assured Omokore that he would not be prosecuted by the EFCC.
On the role of the DSS in the ongoing plot to remove the commission’s boss, Sahara Reporters say sources within the administration revealed that Magu allegedly stepped on the toes of the secret security agency by constantly questioning why they usurped the role of the EFCC by raiding the homes of corrupt former government officials, which should be the exclusive function of the EFCC.
The DSS reportedly raided at least 30 homes of officials and aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan, but only managed to deliver a meager N47million and $1.943million.
When contacted to comment on the story, spokesman for EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said officials of the anti-graft agency were in a meeting over the matter.
He had not responded to text messages sent to him as at press time.
