Mr Ibrahim Magu, Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday said the ongoing investigation of the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, is not personal.
\nMagu stressed that contrary to allegations that Saraki was being witch hunted, his investigation was no different from others as the EFCC only \u201cinvite people who have committed crime, people who are corrupt\u201d.
\nHe said this while receiving award for Outstanding Leadership in Public Service by Euro Knowledge Group.
\nThe Euro Group Award is a highest recognition for individual achievement and is awarded annually.
\nThe award acknowledges and celebrates exemplary leaders that have made signi\ufb01cant contribution and positive impact in their speci\ufb01c industry.
\n\u201cNo,\u00a0 no, it\u2019s not personal. I am not after anybody.
\n\u201cPlease, I don\u2019t want you to personalise this. It is not different from other investigations we are doing,\u201d he said.
\nWhen asked to comment on the statement\u00a0 by Saraki that he was being witch-hunted,\u00a0 Magu said\u00a0 \u201cnever.
\n\u201cYou invite people who have committed crime, people who are corrupt.
\n\u201cIf you are not corrupt, you are not here.
\n\u201cWe do our homework very well: sometimes we conduct preliminary investigations for up to six months and such persons won\u2019t even know we are investigating them,\u201d Magu said.
\nHe described corruption as \u201ca national disaster and mother of all evils.
\n\u201cIf you remove disaster (corruption), you have a peaceful country.\u201d
\nHe said banditry, Boko Haram nuisance and other crimes were \u201ccaused by corruption and sustained by corruption.
\n\u201cIt is been funded by stolen and laundered funds, that\u2019s why it is being sustained.\u201d
\nThe acting chairman, however, said that if corruption was tackled, banditry and kidnappings would be sorted out.
\nHe called on Nigerians and stakeholders to take ownership of the fight against corruption, saying that it was not a job for one individual alone.
\nMagu, expressed gratitude for the award saying it would spur him to do more in the fight against corruption.
\nMrs Olayinka Fayomi, Chairman, Foreign Investment Network (FIN), who presented the award on behalf of Euro Knowledge, said the award was in recognition of those who had impacted the economy.
\n\u201cIt is also in recognition of those who have impacted the system from which ever sector they are operating from, and the EFCC is one of them.
\n\u201cEver since the period Magu had been acting, there has been a tremendous improvement in the fight against corruption,\u201d she said.
\nShe said that with the award,\u00a0 Magu had become one of the African Change Agents.
\nThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Saraki had recently come under pressure from the anti-graft agency.
\nThe EFCC had confirmed reports that it had opened a fresh investigation into Saraki\u2019s stewardship as President of the Senate as well as a probe of his earnings as governor of Kwara from 2003 to 2011.
\nTony Orilade, acting spokesman, EFCC,\u00a0 said in a statement that EFCC was obligated by law to enthrone probity and accountability in the governance space and had supremely pursued this duty without ill-will or malice against anyone.
\n\u201cIt is in the interest of the public and for Saraki\u2019s personal good that he is not only above board, but be seen at all times to be so.
\n\u201cIndeed, all the instances in which the EFCC have had cause to sleuth into his financial activities either as a former governor or President of the Senate were driven by overarching public interest and due process of the law,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nIn his reaction, Saraki insisted that the action of the EFCC was a witch-hunt.
\n\u201cOur attention has been drawn to the fact that the EFCC has marked certain property belonging to President of the Senate, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, obviously under the claim that they are subject of investigation.
\n\u201cThe action of the EFCC only reinforced our earlier stated position that their current investigation is mischievous, contrary to the tenets of the rule of law and only aimed at settling scores.
\n\u201cThe EFCC\u2019s move to investigate him is a mere witch-hunt exercise, aimed at settling scores, laced with malicious and partisan motives,\u201d Saraki\u2019s Media Adviser, Mr Yusuph Olaniyonu, said in a statement.
\nBy NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mr Ibrahim Magu, Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday said the ongoing investigation of the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, is not personal. Magu stressed that contrary to allegations that Saraki was being witch hunted, his investigation was no different from others as the EFCC only \u201cinvite people who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}