Magu’s indictment can’t stand legal scrutiny – Sagay

Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay yesterday said any indictment by the Justice Ayo Salami-led Panel against the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Magu cannot stand legal scrutiny.

He said he was unperturbed with the conclusion of the panel set up to investigate allegations of corruption against Magu because the panel “did not follow any rigour of law. It is as if they followed their impulse.”

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that the panel which probed Magu behind closed doors had submitted its report to President Muhammadu Buhari last weekend where the embattled EFCC Chairman was reportedly recommended for prosecution.

The panel also recommended among others that the headship of the anti-corruption agency should be extended to other security agencies.

But in a chat with Daily Trust on Sunday, Sagay said the allegations against Magu cannot stand legal scrutiny, stating that the Salami’s panel was not a court of law.

He said, “It is one thing to make all sorts of allegations in a small room in the State House; it is another to come and prove them in the High Court.”

Sagay reiterated that Magu’s greatest crime was to be the chairman of EFCC, saying there were many vested interests that wanted him out by all means to pave the way for their candidates.

According to him, his case has proven that Nigeria is a difficult place to serve.

He, however, agreed with the recommendation of the Salami panel on extending the headship of the EFCC to other security agencies but advised that the police should not be totally excluded.