Bullion Vans: Why EFCC Won’t Investigate Tinubu — Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN)

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will not
take any action on the petition asking it to investigate the source
of the money conveyed in bullion vans to the home of the national
leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,
on the eve of the 2019 presidential election.

Speaking exclusively with Daily
Independent^[1] at the
weekend, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), chairman of the Presidential
Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), said the petition
against Tinubu was baseless and written in bad faith.

He added that the anti-graft agency and its head, Ibrahim Magu,
will not join those plotting to bring down Tinubu at all costs
because of his political beliefs.

“If there is no credence in the petitions, what is there to
investigate? You know Nigerians are very adept at writing
petitions. They like frivolous petitions just as they like
litigations. If you know how many petitions are thrown out at the
NJC, you will be amazed.

“The Nigerian mind tends to be very vicious in terms of these
things. They don’t like Tinubu so they must write a petition
against him; a stupid baseless petition.

“When that petition is not acted upon by reasonable men, then
they allege there is bias.

“My view is that there is no basis for those petitions. There is
no merit in those petitions and that is why the EFCC is not acting
on them.”

Speaking on the bullion vans sighted in Tinubu’s compound, Sagay
said that did not constitute an offence and did not make Tinubu a
criminal.

He also said Tinubu had been a very wealthy man before his
election as governor in 1999 who used his wealth to finance many
pro-democracy groups who were fighting for the actualisation of the
June 12, 1993 presidential election mandate.

“They said they sighted bullion vans in front of his house. Is
that an offence? It makes no sense to me. If a bullion van comes to
my house now to deliver anything, does that make me a criminal?
Even if it is money, and it is my money, what is wrong with
that?

“So, I don’t see anything in those petitions. They are just
written in bad faith and hatred and they can’t expect the EFCC to
join them in this baseless hatred of other people and pursue a
vicious campaign of persecution and calumny just because they live
in a state of permanent hatred of people who are working hard for
the transformation of this country towards development and
progress.

“Tinubu was already very rich before he became governor. He is
not a man who became rich after he joined the government.

“He worked in the petroleum sector. I recalled that during the
course of his fight with Abacha, he had to escape for his life in
order to join so many other people like Anthony Enahoro, Wole
Soyinka, and many other pro-democracy activists.

“Tinubu was the one funding quite a lot of the organisations and
those staying abroad. So, he has always been a man of means.

“It will be ridiculous that having come back to the country,
won’t he invest his money in various ventures? So, no one should be
surprised that he is a rich man.

“All I know is that he is rich from his own hard work,
investments and, therefore, he should be given the benefit of the
doubt instead of being subjected to the persecution which some
people want him to be subjected to.”

However, in his reaction to Sagay’s opinion, Chief Mike Ozekhome
(SAN), human rights lawyer, said the Act establishing the EFCC
mandated it to investigate any person, no matter how highly placed,
in accordance with its motto which says no one is above the
law.

“So, when a petition is written against their chieftain, it is
written in bad faith; but when it is written against small-time
‘yahoo boys’, then it is written in good faith.

“What is the job of the EFCC under section 6 and 7 of the EFCC
Act? It is to investigate any person, no matter how highly placed,
in accordance with its motto: ‘No one is above the law’.

“No one is saying Tinubu has done anything wrong yet, but don’t
Nigerians have a right to demand that he be investigated?

“Why should the investigation be written off, whether it was
done in bad faith or good faith? Why can’t the bad faith be shown
in the aftermath of the investigation? There should be no sacred
cows,” he said.

It would be recalled that a rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, had
filed a formal petition demanding an investigation into the bullion
vans in Tinubu’s house following claims by the commission that it
could not act without a formal petition over the issue.

Adeyanju’s petition dated October 25, 2019, was addressed to the
acting chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ibrahim Magu.

In the petition, he reminded the commission of Adeyanju urged
the anti-graft agency to accord the petition priority and begin an
investigation into the appearance of those bullion vans in Tinubu’s
house on the eve of the election.