EFCC CHAIR: Presidency Concludes Plan To Appoint Anti-graft Boss From Among “Core Management Directors”

👤 EXCLUSIVE: Danjuma Aliyu, DENISAURUS News

Staff members of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, may have finally gotten the expected succour they long for from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

This is following the long existing supremacy crisis between core staff of the anti-graft agency and their seconded supporting staff from the Nigerian Police Force, NPF.

Core staff say they have not being treated fairly by an executive chair of the Commission, who favours his colleagues from the Force.

The operatives, who include senior detectives and cadets have been at the Commission since its inception. They say despite their continued effort, they are being denied their rights – i,e promotions or access to arms – unlike Police Officers who continue to expand against the Rules of the Commission.

DENISAURUS News has just been reliably informed, that from the several petitions over the years, which staff members of the EFCC wrote to both Mr President and NASS Senate Members, it seems the ‘intra-rivalry’ may become history.

Increasing concerns from staff members has become so aggravated and intense, since the appointment of Ibrahim Mustafa Magu, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who was appointed as acting chair of the EFCC in November 2015 by President Buhari.

“There has been this issue of vast disparity, when it comes to treating every operative equally, that is core staff and seconded Policemen,” an operative says.

The staff, whose name we have withheld, stated that the coming of Mr Magu increased the issue of acrimony and unjust official treatment of EFCC core staff.

Since the appointment of Mr Magu, “it has been one complaint to another, over the humiliation and victimisation suffered by EFCC Staff.”

Another source who spoke to this newspaper, accused Mr Magu of so many infractions, ranging from “corruption and impunity,” to the bullying which he had subjected EFCC staff members.”

To stiffle their voices, Mr Magu has promoted police friends at the expense of operational workers.

Speaking to a DENISAURUS News reporter via telephone, an employee concluded that: “Our Boss believed that the EFCC Core Staff have been the ones furnishing the Department of State Services, DSS, all the factual and accurate accounts of his unwholesome atrocities and maladministration.”

Yes, No one would have known the anti-graft boss better, if not his staff members whom he had subjected to varying degrees of torment.

But, the DSS carried out a thorough investigation and our sources – mostly EFCC staff members, were right about the Borno born Officer.

Magu’s Replacement

For over a year, this newspaper has supported the call for a replacement for Mr Magu, ever since his nomination was rejected by lawmakers in the Senate on March 15.

DENISAURUS News gathered from a reliable source, that the President may have finally heeded to the DSS Report which indicted Mr Magu to have failed an “integrity test” and who is described as a “liability on anti-graft War.”

From the look of things, it is becoming evident that President Buhari may want to prove to Nigerians, that he had been in the know of all the reports and exposé on Mr Magu, acting EFCC Chair.

Similarly, Mr President as it was authoritatively learned, wants to deviate from the ‘Mono-Attributes’ of past EFCC Leadership, which was narrowed to a particular agency, ethnic group and religion, by choosing a non-police officer to head the agency.

This invariably shows that President Buhari may have agreed with the call for a consideration of “Internal EFCC Management Operatives,” who also posses the requisite experience and qualifications needed to pivot the anti-graft agency.

EFCC staffers are already beginning to jubilate, hoping that this will be the first time when a Core EFCC Management operatives would be considered, and also that a sitting regime of CHANGE would want to rejuvenate the anti-graft war, by boosting the enthusiasm of staff members with this move.

They say: “We believe with this intended new dimension in the history of the EFCC by President Buhari, there would be hope and great success in subsequent fight against corruption, and reduce the many “controversies” and national disarray, caused by the prolonged decision on our acting boss, Mr Magu.”