EFCC: Ibrahim Magu Speaks On Receiving ‘N550b Missing Interest’

Ibrahim Magu, embattled acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has refuted the claim that he failed to account for the interest in the N550 billion recovered loot kept in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), coffers.

Brandnewsday learned that the Final Report of Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA), revealed at the weekend showed how interest rates accumulating from the N550 billion recovered by the EFCC between from May 2015 to May 2020.

According to the Presidential Committee, “EFCC, Failure to report on the interest on actual lodgments clearly establishes that interest element of over N550 billion has been re-looted relating to the period under review”.

However, reacting to the committee’s claim, Magu’s lawyer, Wahab Shittu on Sunday, stated that such recovered fund kept with the CBN does not generate interest.

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The statement reads in part: “It is a falsehood that Magu placed N550 billion recovered loot into a deposit account.

“The alleged transaction never featured in the proceedings before the Salami panel. Magu was never confronted with any such allegation by the panel and the news is a blatant falsehood.”

It further reads: “To the best of Magu’s knowledge, no such amount is in any such account and he remains aghast at such outrageous figures. No one has confronted Magu with such allegations.

“All recovered funds are lodged in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Such recovered funds do not generate interest. This is elementary and can be verified from the CBN and the federal ministry of finance.

“This can also be confirmed by other government revenue generating agencies. Funds kept in TSA account do not generate interest.”

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Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday suspended Magu as the acting chairman of the EFCC.

Magu, on Friday, wrote the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, asking to be released on bail.

In a letter dated July 10, 2020, Magu’s legal representative, Oluwatosin Ojaomo, asked Adamu to grant bail to his client on “self recognizance.”

The suspended EFCC Chairman was apprehended on Monday and taken to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where he is being interrogated by a panel chaired by Ayo Salami, a retired president of the Appeal Court.

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