Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu was Monday grilled in Aso Rock by the presidential panel probing the activities of the agency. The panel reportedly sat at the Banquet Hall wing of the Presidential Villa.
Magu was reportedly stopped in traffic while moving out of the Wuse II Annex of the EFCC in Abuja where the invitation was extended to him.
The Department of State Service (DSS) Monday however refuted the purported arrest of Ibrahim Magu.
While debunking a report by a section of the media in a press statement, the Service Public Relations Officer, Peter Afunanya confirmed that the Service National Headquarters had been inundated with enquiries over the alleged arrest of the anti-graft czar.
Afunaya, who urged the public to disregard the rumour, said “Magu was not arrested.”
The statement partly reads: “The Department of State Services (DSS) wishes to inform the public that it did not arrest Ibrahim Magu, Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as being reported by a section of the media.
“The Service, has since, today, 6th July, 2020, been inundated with enquiries over the alleged arrest.”
Earlier, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had equally debunked media reports that its Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, was arrested.
In a statement, the spokesman of the Commission, Mr Dele Oyewale, said Magu was only invited by a “presidential panel reviewing the activities of the EFCC.”
Oyewale explained further that Magu honoured the invitation voluntarily at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
According to Oyewale, the EFCC boss got the invitation while on his way to the Force Headquarters, Abuja, for a meeting.
“The EFCC’s boss was neither arrested nor forced to honour the invitation. A member of a legal team from the EFCC is also with him on the panel,” he said
Blueprint reports that the travails of the EFCC boss may not be unconnected with a recent letter by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) to President Muhammadu Buhari on why the EFCC boss should be replaced, having been rejected many times by the National Assembly.
The former Director-General of the DSS, Lawal Daura, had also written a damaging report against Magu to the Senate.
