ABUJA – Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has accused the Acting Chairman of the Anti-Graft Agency, Ibrahim Magu, of frustrating the anti-corruption war that he ought to be championing.
Malami in a statement on Wednesday, alleged that the “EFCC leadership has manipulated and misused intelligence to the detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crime in Nigeria.”
The AGF is particularly disturbed that Magu appears not bothered about the suspension of Nigeria from the Egmont Group, which currently made up of 156 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), representing 156 countries and serves as a platform for exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to him, the EFCC boss is also frustrating all ongoing efforts to ensure lifting of the suspension so as to avoid eventual expulsion from the Egmont Group.
A statement issued by the Media Aide to the Minister, Salihu Othman Isah, reads: “the EFCC is now in a state of paranoia, as it dreads the effort of the government to have an independent NFIU, which it has stood against stoically since 2006.
“As it presently stands, the NFIU staff are all deployed by the EFCC to serve in the interest of whoever is its current chairman. This has to stop if it must conform to the new thinking and global best practice. Nigeria cannot be an island of its own. It cannot fight corruption in isolation.
“The threat of expulsion from the Egmont Group calls for a thorough review of the NFIU and the manner in which the EFCC leadership has manipulated and misused intelligence to the detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crime in Nigeria.
“To achieve the desired goal, NFIU needs to stand alone as an agency with full complements of power to recruit its staff and an annual budgetary allocation guaranteed for its operations.
” Its independence must be ascertained in the new law to set up Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency (NFIA) to enable it carry out its mandate, which shall include responsibilities for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence reports on money laundering, terrorist financing and other relevant information to law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies, and other relevant authorities.”
Prior to suspension, Nigeria is represented in the group by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) but was suspended in June 2017 because the NFIU is under the EFCC.
