According to the presidential panel that investigated Ibrahim Magu, former acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he was unable to account for N431 million in security funds allotted to his office between 2015 and 2020.
Magu was said to have used part of the money to pay for electricity bills in his personal farm located in Karshi Development Area of Nasarawa state in the final report submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2020, according to TheCable.
The panel also stated that the former EFCC boss used some of the funds to pay for cable television subscriptions in his private residence in the state’s Karu area.
The panel, led by former Supreme Court President Ayo Salami, was formed to investigate the EFCC from May 2015 to May 2020, when Magu was in charge.
According to The Cable, the report has now been submitted to the office of the secretary to the federation’s government.
According to presidency sources, a panel to create the white paper will be formed soon.
When TheCable contacted Magu’s lawyer, Wahab Shittu, for comment, he declined, saying he wouldn’t speak on a document he hadn’t seen.
“The details of the budget, fund releases, and expenditure in relation to the management of the security/information fund by the acting-chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, show that a total sum of N830 million was appropriated as security/information fund for the office of the executive chairman of the EFCC for the fiscal years 2015-2020,” the panel said.
“The sum of N431 million was released by the EFCC’s finance and accounts department as requested by the executive chairman’s office and approved by the EFCC’s suspended Ag. chairman from November 2015 to May 2020.”
“During the 2019 fiscal year, the suspended acting chairman incurred N17 million in extra budgetary expenditure.”
The amounts (N431m) released to the executive chairman’s office between November 2015 and May 2020 could not be properly accounted for by the acting chairman.
“Analysis of some of the expenditure revealed that funds were misapplied to service expenditure that had nothing to do with the EFCC’s security/information activities.” These include payments for electricity bills for his personal farm in Nasarawa state’s Karshi Development Area.”
Magu should be investigated and prosecuted for failing to account for the security votes, according to the panel.
Furthermore, the panel stated that the anti-graft agency used its staff multi-purpose cooperative society to store N80 million in public funds drawn from the EFCC overhead cost allocation with Magu’s approval.
According to the report, N50 million was refunded on September 30, 2020, leaving N30 million unrecovered.
The report also detailed the EFCC’s poor exhibit management system and how forfeited assets were left to depreciate and decay across the country.
TheCable reported on Monday that the panel accused Magu of abandoning 14 procurement fraud cases totaling N118 billion and $309 million.
Furthermore, he was said to have failed to remit another N48 billion in loot recovered from suspects in foreign and local currencies.