Lawyer Accuses ‘Magu Boys’ of Demanding N75mn Bribery
into Different Bank Accounts
More troubles appear to be rolling in for the suspended Acting
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC),
Mr Ibrahim Magu, following a petition on alleged extortion and
criminal intimidation by Magu’s Boy.
In a fresh petition by an Abuja based lawyer, Mr Johnmary
Jideobi, Magu and his boys were alleged to have unlawfully frozen
accounts of a company, Damjay Integrated Services Limited with
access bank in 2018, without any court order.
PRNigeria[1] gathered that the
petition has been forwarded by the Office of the Attorney General
of the Federation to the Justice Ayo Salami led panel investigating
the recovery of assets by the EFCC under Magu.
The petitioner which among others 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)
where 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.
In the petition signed by the legal practitioner on behalf of
the company and addressed to the Attorney General of the
Federation, Magu was alleged to have bluntly refused to comply with
the order of the court despite not appealing against the
judgment.
Insisting that the EFCC has no power under any Nigerian law to
freeze any bank account without an order of court, Jideobi claimed
that Magu while as acting chairman acted with impunity and trampled
on the rule of law.
At the peak of the alleged unlawful act, the lawyer claimed that
a group of officers operating in the name, “Magu boys” instead of
obeying the court order acted as intermediaries to the company and
allegedly demanded N75 million from the account as a condition for
lifting the illegal restriction.
The petitioner further revealed that the said “Magu boys”, sent
three different bank accounts namely Cikin Gida Nigeria Limited
with account number: 1771773211, at Polaris Bank; Black and Black
Global Concept Limited with account number: 0259011841 with Gtbank
and Amina Kigbu with account number: 2176716071 with Zenith Bank
for the payment of the alleged bribe.
Specifically, the petitioner claimed that the alleged Magu boys
gave directives that the said N75 million bribe be paid in three
tranches of N25 million into the three accounts.
However, following the refusal of the sponsor of the company to
dance to the tune, 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”.
The petitioner, therefore, demanded that the AGF immediately
lift the unlawful restriction on the account in compliance with the
court order, and order an immediate withdrawal of the alleged
phantom charge instituted against the petitioner because it was
predicated on malice and vendetta than justice.
The petition dated July 28, 2020 was received in the AGF’s
office on July 29, 2020 and copied the Justice Ayo Salami led panel
investigating the recovery of assets by the EFCC under Magu, along
with the High Court judgment.