EFCC, MAGU FRUSTRATING ANTI-GRAFT WAR – MALAMI

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Wednesday accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, of frustrating the Federal Government’s anti-graft war.
Malami, in a statement issued in Abuja, alleged that Magu and the EFCC leadership have “manipulated and misused intelligence to the detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crimes in Nigeria.”
He also accused them of working to prevent the lifting of the country’s suspension by the global financial intelligence gathering body – Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (Egmont Group) and ensure the country’s formal expulsion.

The Egmont Group, currently made up of 156 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), representing 156 countries, serves as a platform for exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and functions as the operational arm of the international anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) apparatus.
Nigeria, represented in the group by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), was suspended on June 1, 2007 because the NFIU lacks independence and was subject to the control of the EFCC via the provision of the Section 1(2)(c) of the EFCC Act.

The group demanded autonomy for NFIU as a condition for the country’s readmission, failing which it would be expelled.
Since the nation’s suspension, Malami and Magu have been unable to agree on how to meet the condition set by the Egmont Group for the country’s readmission.
While the AGF wants the creation of an autonomous NFIU, detached from the EFCC, and has send a Bill to the National Assembly to that effect, Magu wants NFIU to remain part of EFCC, but with mere re-organisation of its operations.

In the statement issued for the AGF by his spokesman, Comrade Salihu Othman Isah, Malami frowned at Magu’s hard stance on the issue and noted that the uncooperative attitude of EFCC’s leadership could encourage the Egmont Group to carry out its threat to expel the country.
Malami regretted that Magu appeared not to understand the implication of Nigeria’s expulsion from the group on government’s efforts to combat corruption, terrorism, money laundering and other related vices.