Still Detained

Almost two weeks after he was arrested on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Magu, a Chief Superintendent of Police and former head of the Economic Governance Unit of the Economic and Financial Commission, remains in detention without being charged to court

By Bamidele Johnson

When he was arrested on 3 August, Ibrahim Magu, a Chief Superintendent of Police and former head of the Economic Governance Unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, did not expect to be away from home for long. So did members of his family. Their expectation was based on the avowed readiness of the incumbent administration to abide by the rule of law. Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, ceaselessly claims that no person shall be detained for more than 48 hours without being charged to court.

But as at press time, Magu had spent 10 days in detention and had not been charged to court. The former EFCC investigator was arrested after separate raids on his Lagos and Abuja residences. The first raid, carried out by EFCC officials, took place in Lagos on 28 July, while the other, executed by the police, occurred forty-eight hours later in Abuja.

The EFCC alleged that Magu’s house was raided because intelligence gathered by the commission indicated that the former investigator was in possession of vital documents discovered to have been stolen from the commission. “Upon searching (Magu’s residence), a number of documents were found. We also found a laptop in his possession, a property of the company, which also had a lot of documents saved on it. The first thing is that we have recovered the documents and we are going to keep looking (sic) because many documents were removed from the  case files of the commission before its present leadership was inaugurated,” explained Femi Babafemi, EFCC spokesman. However, the search note signed by the conductors of the raid as well as Magu showed that a laptop, as claimed by the commission was found in Magu’s home.  Documents were also found and these were his handover notes, the interim report on a fraud at the Nigerian Ports Authority, proof of evidence in the case of Tafa Balogun, former police boss, who was prosecuted, convicted and has already served out his sentence. Other items found were his official phone, pistol and rounds of ammunition. There were no documents relating to the investigation of governors, according to the search note.

The laptop found on him was issued to him by the agency when he joined it in 2003. While he has been redeployed to the Force Headquarters, Abuja, he is yet to handover notes. The Police are yet to come up with what was recovered from the Abuja raid, which was conducted in Magu’s absence. The gap between what the EFCC claimed was found in Magu’s house and what the search note contained have spawned allegations that Magu is being harassed as part of the plot to discredit Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the commission, who was demoted by the Police recently. The activities of Magu, a top investigator and key witness in many money laundering cases in Nigeria and abroad are understood to have riled many politicians facing prosecution for corruption. Many of these are currently big guns in the administration of President Umar Yar’Adua, who sacked Ribadu and replaced him with Mrs. Farida Waziri.Waziri, a friend to many of those politicians, recently accused Magu of setting her up to sign for the release of Senator George Akume, former Benue State governor, who is being tried for graft. Waziri is widely believed to be on a mission to de-fang the EFCC as a way of protecting her friends and sponsors. While at the EFCC, Magu oversaw the investigation of state governors for corruption and handled investigations into the collapse of the Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria, owned by the influential Saraki family. Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State was an executive director when the bank died. His father, Dr. Olusola Saraki, the bank’s chairman, is a strong force in the PDP. Both were indicted.

The Police have failed to give reasons for Magu’s continued detention. The Force Public Relations Officer, Agberebi Akpoebi, declined comments on the matter. Magu is one of the numerous officers swept out in Waziri’s attempt to refit the commission to her taste.