An anti-corruption coalition has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari to provide the report of the judicial panel on the former Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.
The groups, HEDA Resource Centre, Global Witness, Re: Common, and The Corner House, in a letter, addressed to the president condemned the political interference in the operation of EFCC.
The petition was signed respectively by Olanrewaju Suraju, Simon Taylor, Luca Manes, and Nicholas Hildyard.
The coalition indicated that the inability of the FG to release the report was partly responsible for the recent drop in Nigeria’s anti-corruption rating by Transparency International.
It also noted over seven months since the judicial panel chaired by a retired justice, Ayo Salami, was established to investigate the allegations made by the Attorney General Abubakar Malami that Mr. Magu had abused his office, more than four months after the panel ended its sitting, the outcome has been kept secret amidst suspicion that Mr. Malami tinkered with the report.
“As the legal maxim goes, “Justice delayed, is justice denied”. If Magu has a case to answer, then let him be charged before a court and given the opportunity to defend himself in public. If there is no case to answer, then justice demands that he be reinstated.
Indeed, every day that passes without a decision being made on his fate chips another block off Nigeria’s reputation for upholding the rule of law. This not only raises questions about Nigeria’s anti-corruption fight, but has strongly suggested to the international community that Nigeria’s fight is not, in the end, serious – that instead, progress can only be made against small targets, and that once the “important” begins to be held to account, the lackies of the corrupt will be permitted to sabotage the due process, absent even the semblance of any subtlety,” the coalition stated.
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