The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu has been suspended, Dateline Nigeria learnt from credible sources.
A new Chairman for the anti-graft agency may also be announced once approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Magu was expected to appear before the Justice Ayo Salami-led presidential panel today, after passing the night in detention at the Force Headquarters Abuja.
He was on Monday intercepted by security operatives who handed him an invitation to appear before the panel set up to investigate him in the light of allegations levelled against him by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN).
The embattled EFCC boss was grilled for more than six hours and will hardly survive the current onslaught against him, a source told Dateline Nigeria.
“You can see that they don’t even want him to go back to his office. They want him to remain in detention until a new chairman is named by the president,” the source, who wants to remain anonymous, added.
Another source also informed Dateline Nigeria that the move to replace Magu is in its final stage.
President Buhari had in November 2015 sacked the Lamorde and appointed Ibrahim Mustafa Magu to act in his place. Lamorde returned to the police and is now an AIG in charge of intelligence.
Buhari didn’t ask the senate to confirm Magu until in July 2018, eight months after appointing him.
In July 2017, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who, as acting president, sent Magu’s name to Senate for confirmation, said the EFCC boss would remain in office.
Osinbajo spoke through Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai at the commissioning of the EFCC zonal office in the state, noting that President Buhari has confidence in Magu’s capacity to lead the anti-corruption war in the country.
“We have confidence in Magu to fight corruption to a standstill. He will remain the EFCC chairman as long as I remain the acting president and as long as Muhammadu Buhari remains the president.
“For those thinking that corruption is beginning to win this war, Magu will remain their nightmare for the next two years or six years as the case may be.”
Magu, who was promoted to a Commissioner of Police in 2018, has spent more than four years in acting capacity with the Senate declining twice to confirm him citing a report by the Department of State Service (DSS) which said he was unfit for the office.
