President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a 7-man Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the allegations of financial impropriety levelled by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, against the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.
The Nigerian leader made this known in a letter dated July 3, 2020, and titled, “Instrument Constituting a Judicial Commission of Inquiry for the Investigation of Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the Acting Chairman of the EFCC for Alleged Abuse of Office and Mismanagement of Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020.”
President Buhari appointed the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, as the chairman of the judicial commission, while the panel has six others as members.
They are DIG Anthony Ogbizi Michael (NPF)- South-South, Deputy Chairman; Muhammad Abubakar Babadoko, Federal Ministry of Justice (North Central);.
Other members of the panel are Hassan Yahaya Abdullahi (DSS) (North Central); Muhammad Shamsuddeen (OAGF) (North West); Douglas Egweme (NFIU) South-East, while Kazeem Attitebi (South-West) will serve as the Secretary.
In the letter, Buhari wrote: “I hereby direct the judicial commission to submit its interim reports to me from time to time but the judicial commission shall, in any case, submit its final report not later than 45 days from the date of its first public sitting or within such extended period as may be authorised by me in writing.”
Buhari also directed the panel to audit the accounts of the EFCC from 2015 to 2020, and also investigate allegations of personal enrichment, abuse of office, disobedience to court orders, and the alleged sale of recovered assets to cronies by the suspended EFCC boss.
The president also mandated the Salami-led panel to investigate an alleged complaint against Magu by the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, as well as his handling of the controversial P&ID case.
He, however, gave the commission 45 days from its first public sitting to complete its investigation of the suspended EFCC boss.
