EFCC: How ‘Magu Boys’ allegedly disobeyed court, demanded N75m bribe – Lawyer 

Another allegation has been made against the suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

This was contained in a petition on alleged extortion and criminal intimidation by some persons believed to be ‘Magu Boys’.

Magu Boys were a team EFCC officials who allegedly acted on behalf of the former chairman.

One of those who confirmed the existence of the squad was former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani.

The former lawmaker accused Magu of running “a cult” which operated with impunity.

He said contrary to “the facade, the EFCC has been run by an inside cult called “the Magu Boys” or “the Chairman Squad. They are a select cream of vicious and cruel officers who operate exclusively and with impunity and only report directly to their boss.

“The inside cult is the dark and immoral aspect of the agency engaged in persecution, blackmail, frame-ups and cruelty. The cult has been the wheel behind the ordeal of their embattled Boss. Until they are rooted out from the agency also.”

In a petition by an Abuja-based lawyer, Johnmary Jideobi, Magu and the boys were alleged to have unlawfully frozen accounts of a company, Damjay Integrated Services Limited in Access Bank.

PRNigeria reports that the petition dated July 28, 2020 was received in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) on July 29, 2020.

It copied the Justice Ayo Salami-led panel investigating the recovery of assets by the EFCC under Magu, along with the High Court judgment.

Jideobi claimed that following the refusal of the bank to unfreeze the account, Magu and EFCC were dragged before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He recalled that Justice O. C. Agbaza on November 21, 2018 declared Magu’s action as unlawful, illegal and ordered him to immediately unfreeze the said bank account.

Magu was alleged to have bluntly refused to comply with the order of the court despite no appeal against the judgment.

Insisting that the EFCC has no power to freeze any bank account without an order of court, Jideobi lamented that Magu trampled on the rule of law.

He told the AGF and Salami panel that Magu Boys, instead of obeying the court order, acted as intermediaries and allegedly demanded N75million from the account as a condition for lifting the illegal restriction.

The lawyer petitioner revealed that they sent three different bank accounts namely Cikin Gida Nigeria Limited with account number 177177321 at Polaris Bank; a Black and Black Global Concept Limited account; and Amina Kigbu with account number 2176716071 at Zenith Bank for the payment of the alleged bribe.

Jideobi claimed that the directive was that the N75million bribe be paid in three tranches of N25million into the three accounts.

But when the company rejected, “a phantom criminal charge was on June 19, 2020, filed against the company’s sponsor and pending in court.”

“It is the aggregation of these ordeals consisting of abuse of investigative powers, extortion, unlawful seizure of a citizens property and flagrant disobedience to order of the court that impelled our client to instruct that the instant petition be tabled before you now that Mr President is desirous of sweeping the EFCC clean and restoring sanity.”

Jideobi demanded that the AGF immediately lift the unlawful restriction of the Access Bank account in compliance with the court order.

He also demanded an immediate withdrawal of the alleged phantom charge instituted against the company owner because “it was predicated on malice and vendetta than justice.”