saharareporters.com/2016/06/22/buharis-chief-staff-abba-kyari-moves-remove-efcc-boss-magu

impactinfluence:
saharareporters.com/2016/06/22/buharis-chief-staff-abba-kyari-moves-remove-efcc-boss-magu

Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President
Muhammadu Buhari, along with the Director
General of the Department of State Security
(DSS) and newspaper publisher Nduka
Obaigbena, has commenced a full-scale war
against Ibrahim Magu, the chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC).
Under the scheme, Magu will be replaced with a
man, already identified, who is more amenable to
the ways of Mr. Kyari and other kitchen cabinet
persons.
Sources at the Presidency said there has been a
cold war between Magu and members of the
President’s kitchen cabinet, who seek to interfere
with ongoing corruption cases at the EFCC.
Matters reportedly came to a head recently when
SaharaReporters did an exposé that revealed
how the Chief of Staff perverted an investigation
that the commission had commenced against a
powerful indigenous oil company, Sahara Energy,
with Mr. Kyari directly accusing Magu of being
the brain behind the leaking of the story.
Related issues of contention include the planned
commencement of the trial of Jide Omokore, a
shady businessman known to have been involved
in multi-billion oil deals with former Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The Chief of Staff had apparently assured Mr.
Omokore that he would not be prosecuted by the
EFCC.
Our sources revealed that Magu’s letter of
nomination to the Senate for confirmation was
delayed by the Chief of Staff and the Attorney
General of the Federation because of Magu’s
“intransigence.”
On the part of the DSS, sources within the
administration say Magu was held to have
stepped on their toes by constantly questioning
why they usurped the role of EFCC in carrying
out raids into the homes of corrupt former
government officials, which is the domain 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 N47m and $1.943m. Worse still, some
of the monies recovered were never delivered to
the federal government treasury and during
reconciliation, some of the foreign currencies
were found to be fake.
In that connection, the sources cited the
February raid on the Abuja home of the son of
Ngozi Olojeme, who was axed as Chair of Nigeria
Social Insurance Trust Fund after Buhari came to
power. While the DSS agents reportedly found
$500,000, only $50,000 was delivered to the
Treasury. Olojeme was never prosecuted either,
where she would have revealed exactly how
much money she lost.
The tension between the EFCC and the DSS grew
to unimaginable proportions until yesterday
when the DSS raided the home of a member of
the Arms Probe Committee, Air Commodore
Umar Muhammed (rtd.) who reportedly had
$1.5million hidden in the premises in Abuja from
bribes he purportedly received on behalf of other
panel members. The reporting of the story
appeared in Thisday newspaper, owned by
Nduka Obaigbena , the publisher of which had
been forced by the EFCC to return monies he
collected from the office of the National Security
Adviser for a contract that was never
implemented.
Knowledgeable sources in government and law
enforcement told SaharaReporters last night that
Obaigbena was stopped from traveling to the
United Kingdom last weekend by airport
immigration officials who told him he was on the
EFCC no-fly list.
The sources say Mr. Kyari, a former member of
the Editorial Board of ThisDay, then intervened,
following which Obaigbena was eventually
allowed to travel the next day. He is now in
London. Sources at the EFCC said that by
securing Obaigbena’s travels, Mr. Kyari, and the
DSS DG apparently obtained his cooperation to
commence a media war on the chairperson of
the agency.
Despite Obaigbena being on the security watch
list of the EFCC, Mr. Kyari and Information
Minister Lai Mohammed recently organized a
high-profile meeting between President Buhari
and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of
Nigeria (NPAN) at the Presidential Villa in which
the publisher featured prominently. Mr.
Mohammed had his issues with Magu as well, as
the EFCC boss had frozen about N10b in funds of
the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) as
former officials there began last-minute looting.
Mohammed intervened to get Magu to unfreeze
the account so that it could be used while he
awaited approval of his budget, but Magu
refused.
The minister also reportedly sent a request to the
EFCC chairman to return monies retrieved from
Obaigbena and other newspaper proprietors who
were caught in the $2.1b scandal, but Magu also
refused to budge. Furthermore, Mr. Magu and
his officials are said to have extended their probe
to include others in the media that include
another publisher, Comfort Obi, whose account
was also frozen. SaharaReporters has it on
indisputable authority that the Chief of Staff and
Mr. Mohammed took those proprietors to meet
with President Buhari, but it is unclear if he gave
them any concessions.
ThisDay’s role in releasing information about the
arrest of the retired Air Commodore accused of
receiving a bribe was consolidated as his travel
ban was lifted, one source revealed.
Speaking to SaharaReporters by phone from
London on Wednesday, Obaigbena confirmed
that he was actually stopped at the Murtala
Muhammad International Airport last Sunday but
claimed it was because of an EFCC warrant left at
the airport last December. He denied that
anyone intervened to facilitate his travel
thereafter, but did not state how the warrant
was overturned except saying that the head of
the Immigration department in Abuja apologized
to him by phone. Asked about his relationship
with Kyari, he admitted that Kyari once served
on the Editorial Board of his newspaper
SaharaReporters has learned that DSS is making
moves to invite Magu for interrogation and
possibly detain him claiming that retired Air
Commodore Umar Muhammad from Bauchi took
$300k from some persons under corruption
probe so that they could hold a meeting with
Magu during his visit to IDP camps in Maiduguri
two weeks ago. It is unclear if Magu had such
meetings.
Air Commodore Umar Muhammad appears to be
the best shot yet at Magu from the onslaught
launched by Abba Kyari and his collaborators.
SaharaReporters learnt that the Arms
Procurement Investigation Committee had also
been fractured along lines of bias, as pressure
was mounted on them not to probe a former
Chief of Army, Lt General Abdulrahman Bello
Dambazau, who is now the Minister of Internal
Affairs. Magu and a few others are said to have
favored inviting and investigating him.
Crying foul, the EFCC in a press statement on
Tuesday contended of the ThisDay report linking
the agency to corruption associated with retired
Air Commodore Umar, that this is simply a case
of corruption fighting back .
People knowledgeable about the retired Air
Commodore said he was married to late oil
Minister Rilwan Lukman’s daughter and that he
has always lived a flamboyant lifestyle close to
former Presidents, including late President Umar
Yar’Adua. They characterized him as a conduit
for passing funds to other Heads of State and
governments in Africa. During former President
Jonathan’s era, for instance, he was said to have
been a go-between with several African Heads of
State, particularly those of Niger and Ghana. He
runs a massive office in Abuja where he refers to
himself as “Don”.
His posh home in Abuja reportedly has at least
50 luxury cars, and he was regularly in the
company of high-profile local and international
visitors. Former FCT Minister Bala Mohammed
was a regular visitor to his home, and he
reportedly was involved in passing money to the
Chadian government during the botched Boko
Haram negotiation involving Hassan Tukur, the
former Principal Secretary to President Jonathan,
who was arrested two weeks ago.
It is unclear how the retired Air Commodore,
given such profile, was put on a panel by the
Buhari government to investigate high-profile
corruption cases.
If Magu is removed from the leadership of the
EFCC, the Chief of Staff and his collaborators plan
to replace him with another police officer so far
simply identified as “Abdulrahman,” an instructor
at the Nigerian Police College in Kaduna.
“Abdulrahman” is said to have once worked with
Farida Waziri, during the darkest days of
impunity and corruption in Nigeria, and appears
to be the kitchen cabinet’s perfect replacement
for Magu as they will control him just as Farida
was controlled by Umaru Yar’Adua’s Aso Rock
gang.
The DSS probe, our sources were unanimous, is
aimed at generating a report that would end
Magu’s tenure.
The vultures are gathering now,” a political
analyst said in New York on Wednesday.
“If Buhari cannot find the conviction to chop off
the head of the crocodile he has reared as a pet
in Aso Rock,” he continued, “ his anti-corruption
claims will be in silent mode by the time he
returns from the United Nations General
Assembly in September, and will be the laughing
stock of the world by the time he reads his
Christmas speech.”

Kyari or whatever they call him is not the president And so he cannot make such move.

What a people

The game of throne continue in nigeria.

I feel Buhari knows some members of his carbinate are no saints... but this is democracy it's a game of numbers and with time when he will have nothing to lose he will surly bounce on them
Buhari has nothing to live for expect to be remembered it a good way and I believe he will do anything to achieve that

Ok

hmmmm case of corruption fighting back dirty like seriously serious

Between him and Buhari I can't tell who have viola rule of law section of the constitution .

If that's what will push Nigeria forward , let them remove him

If it's vendetta , i do not support

Interesting. .

The Story might be true or false, personally I feel the EFCC chairman isn't diplomatic in his approach, though I am a novice in matters of probe and prosecution, but it looks to me like he's handling too many cases at once, accounts are frozen too early without substantive evidence and trials started when lawyers are still unprepared.

I wonder why a prosecutor (FG Lawyers)will be asking the judge for more time to gather evidence, dude, you are the one prosecuting, you brought the case before the court.

That said, if the chief of staff is becoming dictatorial, it's incumbent on his boss to cut him to size.
He looks like he will be a very wicked man sef, with that his body structure.

My opinion o, all of God's creation are beautiful.