The Overseer of Latter Rain assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare on Sunday berated the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu over the perceived ineffective war against corruption in the country, despite being the focus of the current administration.
Pastor Tunde made his position known in his State of the Nation Broadcast titled "It is Time to Renegotiate Our Union".
According to him;
"The ineffectiveness of the anti-corruption war is seen in the loss of crucial corruption cases. For instance, in April 2017, the federal government lost four high profile corruption cases in ninety-six hour.
These losses are in addition to bizarre developments such as the failure of the government to confirm a substantive Chairman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), despite the fact that the same political party controls both the executive and the legislature, not to mention the public showdown between EFCC and Department of State Services (DSS) officials, or the opposition of the Director-General of the DSS to the confirmation of the Acting Chairman of the EFCC."
Pastor Bakare's position may not be unconnected with the prevailing perception that the current administration has lost the fight against corruption owing to widespread reports of senior government officials in the administration being indicted in corruption scandals. The situation has become messier with the EFCC failing to successfully prosecute high profile corruption cases. Many have attributed the failure of the Commission to the incompetence of Magu as well as prevailing bickering within the Commission.
Recall that the Department of State Services had earlier warned against Magu's confirmation stressing that he would constitute a liability to the fight against corruption owing to his antecedent. The Senate later denied him confirmation and had since called for his removal.
Apart from administrative incompetence, Magu had been accused of shielding high profile corrupt officials, stealing of sensitive corruption files, purchase of choice properties in Maitama Abuja, compromising corruption cases, superintending over one-sided corruption war, embezzlement of EFCC funds, dismissal of EFCC staffs who had petitioned the leadership of the Commission and stagnating original civilian staff of the Commission amongst others.
Meanwhile, Magu who appeared before the Senate failed to convincingly defend himself when some of the allegations were thrown at him.
