Magu Having A Doze Of His Own Medicine!

 

A few weeks ago the disgraced former acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu bestrides the Nigerian space like the proverbial colossus. He was the court and the jury, and was always quick to pronounce his targets corrupt, all on the pages of newspapers.

 

You can, therefore, imagine the surprise of Nigerians when they learnt that Magu is complaining that he was being tried in the media by the Presidential Panel investigating corruption allegations against him. Magu that is the leaker-in-chief of alleged corrupt Nigerians to his media friends, who always run with the leak, most times without verification, is accusing the Panel of leaking information to the media without being given the same opportunity to say his own side of the story.

 

This is a man who never gave the former minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke opportunity to defend herself. Because of the bad image the woman had gotten from media trial, her name has become synonymous with corruption. The woman may as well be corrupt, but much of what Nigerians know about her was based on leaks to the media by the EFCC. Again, one is not her to exonerate her, but if Diezani was as corrupt as Magu painted her in the media, especially accusing her of transferring billions of dollars abroad, including to the UK, why did Magu in the past five years failed to present such evidence(s) before the UK government that also abhors corruption, for her extradition to Nigeria?

 

 Even one of the allegations against Magu by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, was the failure of Magu to successfully bring back Diezani. Perhaps in fairness to Magu he had no proof of the Bayelsa born technocrat siphoning monies abroad, but he could not go back to his vomit that the woman is a thief, a narrative that had given him space in the media to lay all manners of accusation against her.

 

An American astronaut, was once posed a question, can man predict the future? He said that man could predict the future. He said that the future is the outcome series of events happening today. If Magu had known this, he would have treated the former National Security Adviser (NSA) under President Goodluck Jonathan, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) differently when he arrest him over the alleged missing $2.1billion arms deal money which the former NSA was alleged to have misappropriated. Dasuki was detained by Magu for years, even when the courts ordered for his release. Magu used all manners of legal gymnastics to ensure that Dasuki was under EFCC detention.

 

If Dasuki were granted bail by a court, the next day the EFCC would bring new charges against him to ensure his continued detention. When Dasuki demanded for his trial, Magu insisted that his trial must be in secret and that even evidences from witnesses have to be taken with the witnesses shielded at the witness box. Dasuki cried foul, insisting that he should be tried in public with the media present like every other accused Nigerian, Magu’s EFCC did not bulge. Today the same Magu is demanding that electronic devices, microphones, video recording be provided at the venue of his investigation by the Presidential Panel. He has suddenly realized the importance of transparency in the judicial process.