A former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor on Monday warned that the 2023 general elections would not hold over the rising insecurity situation in the country.

Ejiofor, who featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise, tasked the federal government to urgently tackle insecurity head-on.

According to him, “If we don’t get these things right before 2023 elections, if we don’t get these things sorted out the various security challenges in the various geopolitical zones, I can assure you that there won’t be elections.

“There will be a crisis in this country, there will be anarchy. We need to sort out this thing before 2023.

“Let us talk about this country before talking about elections. If we continue like this, there won’t be elections in 2023 because of series of agitations.”

Amid the serial security challenges facing the country, Ejiofor supported several calls for restructuring, averring that the move would help solve the various national issues.

The security chief also faulted a situation whereby states would converge at Abuja on a monthly basis to collect allocation, adding that if governments look inward, the states can survive without the periodic revenue.

He also reacted to the controversy trailing the past extremist religious views of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.

Pantami had for the first time acknowledged his past views but noted that he has since renounced those radical assertions.

The Minister said the past radical ideas he was championing were due to age, immaturity, and limited knowledge. This excuse however has not calmed the Twitter storm which is threatening to sweep him from office.

Ejiofor , however said there is no way the DSS wouldn’t have done a thorough check before his appointment as Minister in 2015.

He recalled that the secret service had prompted the Senate via a report which barred the National Assembly from confirming the appointment of a former acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

“I am not the spokesperson of the SSS but I can tell you that it would be difficult for that information to have passed the State Security Service.

“They must have it on record of his sympathy for Al-Qaeda and some of these terrorist organisations. If the State Security Service submits a report on an individual to government and government fails to act on it, who is to blame?” he questioned.

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He did more: Obasanjo asked Balogun to immediately tender his letter of resignation, on account of huge theft of public money traced to him. The dossier lay threateningly on the table before Obasanjo that morning inside the Aso Rock Villa. As narrated by Nuhu Ribadu, first EFCC’s Chairman’s biographer, Prof Wale Adebanwi in his A Paradise for Maggots, Balogun went on all fours as a tribal symbolic solicitation to Obasanjo to, in my words, kill me at home and not kill me abroad, whose Yoruba translation was, pa mi si’le, ma pa mi si’ta. A total sum of N2.7 billion in five different banks and jaw-dropping number of choice properties had been traced to the police chief whose mantra for combating crime was Operation Fire for Fire.

Three people were at that meeting: Obasanjo, his Chief of Staff, Abdullahi Mohammed and Balogun himself. Mohammed had earlier summoned Balogun, on behalf of the President. The three of them, being and having affinity with the Yoruba nation (Mohammed hailed from Ilorin, Kwara State), could connect with Balogun’s symbol-baiting prostration. Here was the bodily hefty, giant-in-position Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police in total surrender to his accuser. Tafa Balogun was not only prostrate, in that prostrating position, he was pliant, literally castrated of his manhood and was in subdued acceptance of his guilt.

Balogun was to be dragged by the EFCC to court a few weeks later. He had been handcuffed and even dragged on the floor by young police officers who probably had not stopped sucking their mothers’ teats when he joined the police force. Then Chief Superintendent of Police, Ibrahim Magu, one of the EFCC operatives under Ribadu, led that operation that saw a huge crime czar like Balogun falling with a deafening thud like a common felon.

Thoroughly defoliated of his manhood in the public by Magu and his boys, Balogun had reportedly pleaded with them that, “I can change your lives, please. Let me settle you and let’s settle this. I can make you rich for life.”
Within the period he held the brunt of power, Ribadu oscillated in the air like a pestilence to a commune of Nigerian fraudsters and corrupt Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) who were mutating in the air like a ravaging virus.

Aside allegations against him that he was Obasanjo’s poo-poo bowl carrier, Ribadu succeeded in instilling fears into the hearts of Nigerian malefactors clothed in the euphemism of political office holders. His rout of criminals was so celebrated that late literary giant, Chinua Achebe, in lauding the clinical way he fought crime and criminals, compared him to Eliot Ness.

Ness was an American crime-bursting legend of the 1930s renowned for bringing down the Al Capone gang in Chicago, Illinois. His law enforcement team, a 1,000-strong group called Bureau of Prohibition, was nicknamed The Untouchables. When the system was to chop Ribadu off, it made mincemeat of him and flushed the Adamawa-born crime-buster down the cistern like a common felon.

In quick successions, Farida Waziri and Ibrahim Lamorde came, appointed into office by Presidents Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. They also made noise and got some criminals to scamper off their felonies. However, not long after, they became the proverbial Maga dogs, biting the systemic hands that recruited and fed them, thereby getting drenched in the sewage waters that seemed to have been reserved for Nigerian crime-busting chiefs. So, why did the four EFCC czars come into office with so much hope, so much adulations, expectations, vapory glories, but ended up being drenched in a haze of ignominy?

Is there a latent systemic error that will always ensure that the after-office graveyards of these crime lords must be garlanded with stench and shame?
As against what its minders are making us to believe, it is a huge minus to the Muhammadu Buhari government that Magu is being tried now. It is either the government has no mind of its own and was amenable to being swept right, left and center by the currents of some individuals’ whims and caprices, or that it is seriously implicated in the politics of crime-fighting, the ocean of which is alleged to have drowned Magu. This is because, in the cache of allegations said to have been leveled against the ex-EFCC boss, there is a rehash of same allegations which the DSS, about five years ago, saw as reasons why Magu’s nomination should not be upheld by the Nigerian senate.

Throughout the years spent by Magu as EFCC chair, those who understood the workings of the mind of the Buhari government claimed that he was an insider-outsider therein. This meant that though Magu was of the government, he was not for them. If he was for them, his confirmation as EFCC chair shouldn’t have lingered as embarrassingly as it did, like the cry of a wife who clandestinely murdered her hubby. There is the claim that he was of the Bola Tinubu/Yemi Osinbajo rump of the current power calculus. This then must explain why it was easy for those who cooked the slur on the Vice President’s name, using alleged proceedings of Magu’s interrogation, to reinforce the believability of their claim.

The truth is, there are far weightier allegations against Buhari government functionaries hanging in the public domain than those leveled against Magu. For instance, owning property in Dubai, UAE is alleged to be one of Magu’s errs. However, it is common knowledge that the UAE remains a haven where corruptly acquired wealth is laundered for the Nigerian political elite and owning eye-popping property in this Arab country is the rule, rather than the exception. No wonder cyber-heist kingpins like Hushpuppi and Woodberry found a comforting nest there. A minister in Buhari’s government was recently accused of owning humongous mansions in Abuja. His riposte was that he acquired them as a teacher.

The Attorney General of the Federation, the one who must be popping champagne for having seen the back of Magu, also has a mountain load of his own allegations trailing him like recalcitrant flies envelope oozing stench. There is no doubt that illicit financial outflows from Nigeria daily trickle out of PEPs’ conduits and pipes.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai was, not long ago, enmeshed in an asset declaration scandal pronged on allegation of ownership of property in Dubai. In his reply, he claimed that the property belonged to his unstated family and that the family made these investments in this Middle East city in 2013, long before his appointment. No further questions were asked. No further investigations needed to be carried out. As far as Nigeria and government were concerned, Buratai’s answers were QED.

Matthew Page, in a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace page, had made a damning condemnation of this capricious craving of Nigeria’s political elite. “For Nigeria’s corrupt political elites, Dubai is the perfect place to stash their ill-gotten gains and enjoy luxury real estate worth millions. But unless authorities stop turning a blind eye, the long-term costs to Nigeria’s economy and Dubai’s reputation could be high,” he had written.
If the truth be told, Magu was an accident waiting to happen on the Nigerian crime-fighting system. So also were his predecessors.

This is because, an office which is that consequential is subjected to inconsequential indices of operations which cannot but render its occupants dead on arrival. What procedure, process or rules guide the appointment of EFCC czars? In other words, how do they emerge? Are they chosen on account of moral gallantry, their ethnicity, man-knows-man procedure or mere seniority? How many times did past occupiers of that office, before and after coming on board, demonstrate ability to look at enticing lures in the face and tell them to go jump inside the River Niger? Elliot Ness, who Achebe compared Ribadu to, in 1931, had a member of the Al Capone gang bait with two $1,000 notes (about $17,000) if he turned a blind eye to the group’s illegal merchandizing. He refused and even though he died penurious at age 54, Ness’ heroic reputation is legendary in America.

Is there a crime-fighting institution or architecture in Nigeria? The answer is no. Our measurement of their suitability is the candidate’s ethnic affiliation, the person who introduces them and their loyalty to the occupier of authority seat. To expect a thorough-bred czar to come out of such a nebulous system is hypocrisy of the highest order.

The story is told of how Obasanjo picked Dora Akunyili without any bother about her ethnicity but a buzz that she had demonstrated an unusual moral courage alien to this clime while working with the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) as pharmacist. When she eventually came on board at NAFDAC, she merely rehashed what was her internal constitution. In serious climes, anyone who is to be appointed into an office as critical as the EFCC, who would naturally confront billions of Naira in kickbacks and illicit perks of office must have been psychologically grilled before society can arrive at their suitability. In Nigeria, politicians, who know the criminal functionality of having their Man Fridays occupy such positions, fight tooth and nail to have them in office.

Again, are we being fair to appoint a policeman with no pedigree of snubbing ill-gotten wealth, whose salary is a paltry few thousands of Naira, to superintend over a potential illicit wealth empire like the EFCC? The Carnegie Endowment said PEPs – “individuals who are or have been entrusted with a prominent public function” like Magu and the likes, “are at higher risk of involvement in unlawful activity due to their positions of influence and access to assets.” In fact, it states that, as at 2016, the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (now known as C4ADS) “acquired the data of a private database of Dubai real estate information (dubbed the  ‘Sandcastles’ data) and that, at a conservative estimate, “at least 800 properties were found to have links to Nigerian PEPs or their family members, associates, and suspected proxies.”

So why are we crying wolf now when we exposed a police officer whose take-home is less than a million naira to assets in multiple of billion naira worth?

In a Nigeria that is brimming with street mindsets of fraudulently acquired wealth, of filthy wealthy men and women who crawl in a cesspit like maggots, are we sincere to think we would always have men/women who will kick against what has become normal among us? Are we seriously looking for a clean EFCC chairman in this dirty clime? Those are the honest questions we must ask ourselves. If we now seek a person who is unlike the filth associated with us, should we just pick them peremptorily like they pick a fallen mango off the tree?

This is why, if we think that, with Muhammed Umar as replacement for Magu, or even any substantive name brought up eventually, the maladies in the EFCC would stop, we are fooling ourselves and are on a Pyrrhic victory binge. This is because, no institution of consequence is so forged in saner clime.

By the way, I read that Magu is bitterly complaining that his tormentors-in-chief had treated him with rank ignominy, like a common criminal, inside the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence (FCIID) dungeon where he is said to be currently held. Oh, right? How did he, as CSP who led the assault operation against Tafa Balogun, treat the then Inspector General of Police? Wickedness is like the story in the Myth of Sisyphus, a 1942 essay by the Algerian-French philosopher, Albert Camus. While Sisyphus pushes the boulder down the mountain, he goes back again and does the same thing, till the end of time. Good is the only thing that can break the jinx.

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Magu’s suspension by the President, which takes immediate effect, was announced in a statement from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

The minister’s Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Umar Gwandu, who signed the statement explained that the presidential directive was to allow unhindered inquiry by the Presidential Investigation Panel under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act and other relevant laws.

He disclosed further  that President Buhari has directed the EFCC Director of Operations, Mohammed Umar, to take charge and oversee the activities of the commission.

Umar will oversee EFCC’s activities pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and further directives in that regard.

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The EFCC boss stated this in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital during the 10-million-man march against corruption held in conjunction with the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, in all the state capitals across the country.

Magu, who was represented in Ibadan by the acting Zonal Head of the Commission Ibadan office, Bright Igeleke, urged the youth to always stand for what is right to ensure a better days for the country.

Themed “Nigerian Youths Walk Against Corruption”, the exercise had as participants thousands of corps members and officials of the state NYSC led by the State Coordinator, Mrs. Eniola Ambekemo; State Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Mrs. Josephine Ruth Obi; State Director of National Orientation Agency, NOA, Mrs. Dolapo Dosumu; Labour leaders members of the Civil Society Organisation; Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Nigeria Police Force, State Security Service, among may other stakeholders.

Ambekemo advised the youth to always stay away from crime and corruption tendencies, urging them to be good ambassadors of the nation and their respective communities.

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Magu made the assertion in Ibadan on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 during a visit to the Chairman and proprietor of the popular Ibadan-based Splash FM, Chief Adebayo Akande.

The EFCC boss, who was represented by the head of the Commission’s Ibadan zonal office, Friday Ebelo, explained that the EFCC’s recognition of the importance of the youth demography to the development of the country informed its decision to centre the forthcoming 10-million-man-march against corruption around the youth.

The event which was slated for February 14 has the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, and many youth-based organisations across the country as partners.

“Ours is a growing demography with more than 50 percent of youth population. We realized that if we can harness and attune their energy to positive use, our country’s desire to be a virile nation will be easily achieved.

“We also realise that the youth are mostly both the victims and perpetrators of the type of crimes our agency fights. We believe that if we enlist them and get them fully involved in the fight, the problems around the economic and financial crimes will be solve to a reasonable level.

“Once the youth take the leadership of the fight and apply their strength in its propagation, we are confident that the bulk of the Nigerian population will key into it and our country will be the ultimate beneficiary,” he said.

Ebeleo had early on Tuesday, February 4, appeared on Diamond 101.1 FM to feature on the Commission’s weekly enlightenment programme, EFCC Eagle Alert, to mobilise members of the University of Ibadan community and its environs for the march.
While responding to EFCC’s visit, Chief Akande pledged continued support of Splash FM and its sister stations – Lagelu FM, Ibadan and Splash FM, Abeokuta – in promoting the activities of the commission.

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Magu gave the hint in Ibadan on Wednesday, while fielding questions from journalists during his working visit to the Commission’s Ibadan zonal office.

The commission had traced a number of criminal activities ranging from abuse of office, bribery, fraud, misuse of public funds and money-laundering to the former minister, who is currently at large to avoid questions on alleged criminal activities dotting her years as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The anti-graft czar, who wondered why her current country of abode has not surrendered her to Nigeria to face justice, said the EFCC would do everything within its power to get her prosecuted this year.

“We will bring her back to the country this year. We must get her. They (the foreign countries) have no reason to keep her there. This is the fifth year. Why should they be investigating such a straight-forward case for five years. It is a financial crime investigation. It is not a murder case that should linger. The case is straightforward. If they don’t have sufficient evidences to establish any offence, they should bring her back. We have more than enough evidences to take her to court,” he lamented.

Though, Alison-Madueke was yet to be arraigned in Nigeria, the commission has secured final forfeiture orders against some properties traced to her, including hundreds of assorted jewelry worth over $40 million.

The EFCC boss also told journalists that officers of the commission will take active part in the forthcoming supplementary elections across the country, adding that the focus will be on preventing vote-buying and vote-selling at the polling units.

He had, on arrival, led the media men to inspect the facilities within the premises. He insisted that the commission’s facilities, including the cells, meet the international standard.

While describing the citing of the Ibadan zonal office as unique, Magu said the fact that the office is housed in an old abode of the former Premier of the Western Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola, and also shares fence with a property of his predecessor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is a blessing for the Commission.

“This is very symbolic. With this divine coincidence, we believe we are on the right track in the fight against corruption. These are people who fought for the unity of this country. They gave away everything for us to be able to live united today as a country. I am indeed happy about it,” he said.

Magu also informed that the EFCC will be holding a 10-million-man march against corruption across all states of the federation on February 14,

According to him, the march is organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other stakeholders.

He promised a stiffer battle against corruption in 2020, adding that the commission will make efforts to ensure that all looters surrender their loots.

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Magu stated this on Thursday at St. Luke Anglican Church, Lalupon, Oyo State where he addressed members of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Oyo State Chapter, during their congress.

The EFCC boss, who was represented by the Head of the Commission’s Ibadan zonal office, Friday Ebelo, noted that Nigeria is at a critical stage of her development during which all citizens must sincerely come together and work hard to salvage the situation. He said all Nigerians must shun corrupt attitudes and imbibe positive behaviour to help the nation reclaim her greatness in the comity of nations.

According to him, the religious leaders have critical roles to play in the process as most Nigerians are adherents of one religion or the other.

He specifically urged Christian leaders to always preach love to their congregants, saying ‘if you have the love of Christ, you will be able to effect some lasting solution to our societal problems’.

While welcoming the EFCC team, the state chairman of CAN, Pastor Benjamin Akanmu, remarked that the anti-graft agency’s efforts in combating economic and financial crimes are yielding positive results.

He also commended the Commission’s leadership’s initiative of involving critical stakeholders, particularly the religious community, in the anti-corruption campaign, saying the nation will be benefit immensely from the effort.

Pastor Akanmu promised the continued support of the state CAN to the Commission and its activities.

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Magu gave the charge on Tuesday, at the orientation camp centre of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Oyo State Directorate, in Iseyin.

The EFCC boss’ message was delivered by Friday Ebelo, zonal head of the Commission’s Ibadan office, during the orientation programme organised for the 2019 Batch ‘C’ (Stream 1) corps members.

According to him, the level of education attained by the corps members must reflect in their thinking and conduct as it is expected to help them impact their environment positively.
“Nigeria places high premium on you. You cannot afford to let it down. A true leader will always do things that will lift up the society and refrain from getting involved in act that will pull it down,” he said.

The anti-graft czar also advised them to have a clear vision about their future and explore all legitimate means to ensure that their goals are achieved.

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The Commission’s Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, disclosed this at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The EFCC boss said, “We will extend our investigation to doctors who connive with criminals and give them a fake medical report. We have to go after them and fight them.

“Those facing corrupt allegations go as far of getting fake reports from abroad. So, the practice of giving fake medical report must stop,”

Magu, who said that most of the corruption cases were not properly reported during prosecution, urged journalists to help in fighting corruption in the country.

“Most of the cases during prosecution are not properly reported. The stories are not balanced. I don’t know how many people go to court to report the actual incident and the facts.

“That is why we have endless cases in court. We are seriously going back to the drawing board and we will call all the lawyers handling our cases to tell us the status of the cases ongoing.

“Some would win senate and present serial medical results that they can not appear in court. Some would be brought to the courtroom in a stretcher”.

The EFCC gaffer also hinted  that the commission was carrying out investigations into some Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) operating in the North-East as they were being used to move cash around.

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Speaking at the presentation, the Head of the Ilorin office, Isyaku Sharu disclosed that the Zone which started its operations in February has achieved a lot in terms of assets recovery and conviction of corrupt individuals.

According to him, “we have 29 convictions and over N500million (five hundred million naira) recovery for both assets and cash; part of this recovery is the N111, 428, 891.00 cash recovered for the Kwara state government.

“This recovery is from suspected Kwara state treasury looters. The suspects allegedly misappropriated landed properties of Harmony Holdings while others diverted funds meant for micro small and medium enterprises credit scheme. The suspects cut across political office holders, traditional rulers and top civil servants,” he added.

Mr Sharu, while assuring of the agency’s steadfastness in ridding the state of all acts of corruption and other economic crimes, stressed that he was mandated by the acting chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim Magu to present a draft for the recovered fund.

Governor Abdulrazaq, in his response thanked the EFCC, just as he hinted  that the cash will be used for the social investment programme in the state to lift poor people out of poverty.

“We are overwhelmed because history is being made in Kwara state with the return of our monies recovered by the EFCC especially now that there are many projects to embark on.

“As we promised to replicate the federal government social investment programmes, this cash would be used for that programme and we will make our people realise that the seed money for social investment programme, before we came into power, was also recovered.

“We would let our people know that it is the money realised by the EFCC we are giving them so that they can pay back when they get the loan. It will help to lift thousands of people out of poverty,” the governor averred.

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